NDDC dues: N’Assembly wants oil firms’ chiefs arrested

The National Assembly on Tuesday approved the issuance of warrants of arrest on Chief Executive Officers of seven oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region.

The CEOs are to be arrested for not honouring the lawmakers’ invitation to a public hearing where they were expected to explain reasons why they allegedly refused to remit their statutory funds to the Niger Delta Development Commission.

The decision was taken by the joint Committee on Niger Delta.

They also accused the management of the NDDC of not keeping accurate financial records with remittances from oil companies, which had robbed the commission of funds to execute projects in the region.

The legislators stated this following revelations from some oil firms that they had made futile efforts to meet with the management of the NDDC to reconcile their accounts with the commission and pay relevant dues.

The seven affected firms are Continental Oil and Gas Limited, Conoil Oil Producing Limited, Niger Delta Petroleum Resources, Allied Energy Plc, Sheba Petroleum Exploration and Production/Express Petroleum, Newcross E& P, Pan Ocean Oil Corporation and Atlas Petroleum Development Company.

The Chief Technical Adviser to Oriental Energy Resources, Goni Sheikh, told the committee that his company paid $18m to the commission in 2014 and had set aside $1m to be paid to the agency but that the commission had failed to schedule a meeting with the company despite several letters sent to its management.

He said, “As of December (2015), we had $1m to pay to the NDDC. We have written several letters to the commission for us to meet and reconcile our account, but we have not received any reply.”

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on NDDC, Peter Nwaoboshi, lamented that those who had represented the NDDC had created the impression that it was the oil companies that were not remitting what they should be remitting to the commission.

He added, “There is a procedural lapses in the NDDC. The regulations, the procedure they are adopting in that office will be a matter between us and them.”

Nwaoboshi stated that the process for the forensic audit of the commission had started, alleging that there were discrepancies in the financial accounts presented by the agency.

He, nevertheless, exonerated the Managing Director of the commission, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, because she was still new on the board.
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