Group Rejects Alleged ₦210tn Gap in NNPCL Accounts, Urges Senate to Reconcile Figures

Onuminya Innocent

The Ajiya Solidarity Forum (ASF) has dismissed Senator Ahmed Wadada’s allegation of a ₦210 trillion discrepancy in Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) accounts, describing the claim as a “mirage” and warning against political theatre in legislative oversight.

In a statement released Monday in Sokoto and signed by National Coordinator Hamza Usman, the forum — a coalition of professionals and stakeholders promoting transparency — said it respects the Senate’s constitutional mandate but “is deeply concerned by the mathematical impossibility of the figures being brandished and the subsequent threat to issue arrest warrants for former officials, including immediate past Chief Financial Officer Mr. Umar Ajiya.”

ASF argued that Wadada’s figure is not grounded in forensic reality but in a misreading of NNPCL’s balance sheet, the group noted that Nigeria’s 2024 national budget is roughly ₦28.7 trillion, making the idea that a single agency “lost” ₦210 trillion — nearly eight times that amount — economic fiction. It added that total crude oil revenue from 2017 to 2023 does not aggregate to ₦210 trillion, so demanding a “refund” of money never earned is futile.

The forum explained the two numbers it says the Senate Committee incorrectly netted together: ₦103 trillion in accrued expenses, representing multi-year joint-venture liabilities for production costs, royalties and fees, not vanished cash; and ₦107 trillion in receivables, or money owed to NNPCL, including subsidy debts from government. Labeling receivables as “missing funds,” ASF said, “is a professional travesty.”

ASF highlighted Ajiya’s tenure as CFO, during which NNPCL published its first audited statements in more than 40 years and transitioned from a statutory corporation to a commercial entity under the Petroleum Industry Act. The ₦5.9 billion incorporation cost, the forum said, reflected complex international legal restructuring, not a “mere name change.”

Warning that “phantom numbers” inflame public passion without constituting effective oversight, the forum said such tactics damage Nigeria’s reputation with investors and devalue public servants’ contributions. It urged the Senate Public Accounts Committee to engage in “sober, technical reconciliation” rather than media-led ultimatums, withdraw arrest threats against officials who have already submitted 19 detailed responses, and work within the PIA framework that distinguishes accrued liabilities from revenue discrepancies.