Essential Ndubuisi
The ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives, tasked with investigating the sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil, amounting to over $2.4 billion, and crude oil export to China from 2014 to date, has discovered that the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, allegedly paid $200 million as consultancy fees in whistleblower recoveries. The committee revealed that the payment was made without statutory approvals.
According to the chairman of the committee, Mark Gbillah, Malami and the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, have not been cooperative with the committee, failing to answer issues arising from the crude sales, despite letters of invitation sent to them.
The committee has seen documentation from the Accountant General’s office, where the Minister of Finance approved the payment of a substantial amount of money to so-called whistleblowers, without providing details of the recovered monies. The constitution requires that Nigeria’s money be routed through the constitutional appropriation process before being expended.
Gbillah expressed displeasure at the actions of the two public officers and appealed to them to appear before the committee or risk arrest. He noted that the Attorney General’s office has no statutory powers to determine how Nigeria’s money should be spent.
The committee also uncovered an incident where a whistleblower reported to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit about $200 million paid into two companies’ accounts, Biz Plus and GSCL, allegedly for consultancy services, approved by the Attorney General’s office on the approval of the President.
The committee called on the Minister of Finance and the Attorney General of the Federation to appear before the House to provide clarity on the inflows from whistleblowers’ recoveries and how the monies were recovered. If they fail to do so, the committee will be forced to invoke the summons and all other necessary powers of the National Assembly.
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