The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has accepted that it owes the Federation Account a huge chunk of crude oil revenue.

Chairman of the Finance Commissioners Forum, Mr. Timothy Odah, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen on the outcome of yesterday’s edition of the monthly Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting held in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had in a September 25 letter to

President Goodluck Jonathan accused NNPC of failing to account for $49.8 billion out of revenue from crude oil sales between January 2012 and July 2013.

While the NNPC Management has been publicly denying owing the Federation Account, NNPC representatives at the FAAC meeting admitted that the parastatal was indeed owing part of crude oil revenue, Odah disclosed.

“The NNPC has admitted that truly they owe the Federation Account and by that information, we referred the deliberation on the figure of what they say they owe to the next FAAC meeting. This is so that the technical committee will be able to examine NNPC accounts before we will be able to publicise or accept the figure they have quoted,” said Odah, who is the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Finance.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes Odah as describing the confession of NNPC’s representatives at the FAAC meeting as “important” and a welcome development.

“You know previously that it has always been a matter of controversy. They say they don’t owe and sometimes they will say that it is the Federation Account that owes them, but this time they have accepted that they owe,” Odah stated

“Although, the difference between what we claim they owe and what they claim they owe, is very marginal,” he added.

Odah said the FAAC technical sub-committee would begin to work on measures to further scrutinise remittances by the NNPC in order to avoid such occurrences in future.

•Photo shows CBN Governor Sanusi who blew the whistle on the missing billions.