SERAP Files Suit Against NNPCL Over Alleged Missing $2.04bn.

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has filed a lawsuit against the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited over the “failure to account for and explain the whereabouts of the alleged missing $2.04 billion and N164 billion oil revenues.

SERAP, said, the allegations are documented in the recently published 2020 audited report by the Auditor-General of the Federation that the NNPC; failed to remit the money into the Federation Account, saying that the money may have been diverted.

A statement signed by the Deputy Director of SERAP, Kolawole Oluwadare, the suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, SERAP is seeking “an order of mandamus to direct and compel the NNPC to account for and explain the whereabouts of the missing USD$2.04 billion and N164 billion oil revenues, as documented in a report by the Auditor-General.”

The organization said, the failure to account for the missing oil revenues reflects the nation’s oil giant’s “continuing failure to uphold the principles of transparency and accountability,” adding that it’s a “grave violation of the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], among others.

SERAP condemned the missing oil revenues, lamenting that “had the NNPCL and its subsidiaries accounted for and remitted the disappeared public funds into the Federation Account, it is likely that more funds would have been allocated to the fulfillment of economic and social rights of Nigerians, such as increased spending on public goods and services, adding that, the missing oil revenues have also impeded Nigerians’ ability to enjoy their economic and social rights, and denied them access to essential public goods and services, especially at the time of cost of living crisis in the country.