The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has summoned the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, and members of his management team over alleged discrepancies amounting to N210 trillion in the company’s financial records.
Chairman of the committee, Sen. Ahmed Wadada, disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.
Wadada said the decision followed what the committee described as unsatisfactory responses provided by the NNPCL regarding issues raised in the company’s audited financial statements covering 2017 to 2023.
According to him, the committee began investigating the financial records in May 2025 after reviewing reports of the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation for the years ending 2019 and 2020.
He explained that lawmakers examined the audited financial statements prepared by external auditors as well as financial records of the former National Petroleum Investment Management Services, now known as NNPCL Upstream Investment Limited, within the same period.
The lawmaker said the committee raised 19 queries seeking clarification on several inconsistencies discovered in the financial records but noted that the responses received from the company were not satisfactory.
Wadada said one of the major concerns was an accrued expenses figure of N103 trillion recorded in the company’s 2022 audited financial statement.
He noted that the expenses were listed as retention fees, legal fees and audit fees, but the accounts did not provide a detailed breakdown of the figures.
According to him, NNPCL later explained that the amount represented cumulative spending by joint venture partners under the joint venture cash call arrangement.
The committee, however, rejected the explanation, noting that the cash call regime had been abolished in 2016 and became effective in January 2017.
Wadada also said the committee queried N107 trillion recorded as sundry receivables as of December 2023.
He said NNPCL claimed that part of the amount was owed by defunct banks and other entities, but lawmakers said the company failed to provide details identifying the institutions responsible for the debts.
The committee further observed a duplication of subsidy deductions amounting to N3.8 trillion, which it said was deducted from crude oil proceeds in the accounts of the former NAPIMS and also from petroleum product proceeds in the books of the NNPC.
Wadada also raised concerns over N5 trillion recorded as direct production costs between 2017 and 2021, noting that NNPC and NAPIMS do not directly produce crude oil.
He added that the committee questioned the N5.9 billion spent on incorporation expenses during the transition from NNPC to NNPCL, describing the amount as excessive.
According to him, the committee resolved that the company must account for the combined N210 trillion arising from the unexplained accrued expenses and sundry receivables.
He said the panel had summoned the immediate past management of NNPC and NAPIMS, including Kyari, former Chief Financial Officer Umar Ajiya and former Group General Manager of NAPIMS Bala Wunti.
Wadada said they are expected to appear before the committee alongside the current management of NNPCL and the external auditors responsible for preparing the financial statements.
He added that the committee had also recommended that the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation conduct a forensic audit of the company’s financial statements from 2017 to 2023.
The senator warned that the Senate would invoke its constitutional powers if the invited officials failed to honour the summons.
