The Nigerian Government may have considered closed the case of the $10.8 billion (over a trillion naira) crude oil revenue which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to remit to the Federation Account as required by law.

This indication was given by Chief (Dr.) Tony Anenih, Chairman, Board of Trustees of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Anenih in a letter to Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, Chairman of the LEADERSHIP Group, Abuja, claimed that NNPC has given satisfactory explanation on how it spent the money. This is contrary to the earlier statements of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy/Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, that NNPC should account for the money as the corporation has no right to spend crude oil revenues without first channeling them to the Federation Account. There have also been insistent calls from home and abroad for the auditing of NNPC accounts by a reputable international accounting firm.

However, Anenih in a January 17, 2014 letter to Mr. Nda-Isaiah, berated him for daring to focus on the issue in his article entitled ‘Is The President Aware That $10.8b Is Still Missing?’ published in his weekly column in LEADERSHIP newspaper of Monday, January 13, 2014.

“The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had given a satisfactory account of the supposedly missing $10.8b,” Anenih declared, using as a basis the claims made at a press conference by NNPC chiefs.

He referred to a story titled “How We Spent Unremitted $10.8bn – NNPC” published by LEADERSHIP and several other media on January 11 and 12, 2014. Part of the report reads: “the NNPC group executive director, Finance and Accounts Directorate, Bernard Otti, said the $10.8b reflected expenditures incurred by the corporation during the period under review and are really made up of the following: subsidy claims, $8.49b, pipeline management and repair costs, $1.22b, products/crude oil losses $0.72b, and cost of holding the strategic reserve.”

Anenih tore into Nda-Isaiah, saying: “Despite these facts now being public knowledge, you went ahead to posit that some imaginary 10.8b is still missing somewhere.”

He also told Nda-Isaiah: “It is the height of brinkmanship to seek to inflame passions over a “missing” amount of money, which has been proven by the relevant agency not to be missing at all, and recently enumerated the purposes for which the money was spent.”

The implication, considering Anenih’s massive influence on the Jonathan administration, is that the administration considers the issue of the missing $10.8 billion missing oil revenue closed – public outcry notwithstanding.

•Photo shows Chief Anenih.

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