The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Kano office has recovered N328,988,296,990.62 from nine major oil marketers across the country.

The recovery was sequel to a petition against the leadership of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiary, the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC).

The petition alleged that N40 billion had been diverted by the major oil marketers in connivance with the leadership of the NNPC and PPMC.

The EFCC, in a swift reaction, referred the petition to a special task force who swung into action by conducting discrete investigation.

Findings by the operatives of the EFCC revealed that the oil marketers were actually indebted to the Federal Government to the tune of N91,519,485,204.44 between 2010 and 2016.

Further investigation into the allegation also revealed that the oil marketers had continued to obtain petroleum products from the government without proper payment, in violation of the NNPC/PPMC credit facility regulations; a probe of which further led to the discovery of N258,928,926,351.93.

Following the latter discovery, the total amount of debt stands at N349,818,411,556.37.

Upon the conclusion of the preliminary investigation, officials of NNPC/PPMC and all the Managing Directors of the concerned companies which are NNPC retails, Conoil Plc, Total Plc, OVH Energy Plc, Oando Plc, Forte Oil and Gas Plc, Mobil Plc, MRS Oil Plc, and NIPCO Oil Plc were invited to the Kano zonal office of the commission where their statements were recorded following which the recovery process commenced.

EFCC said N328,988,296,990.6 has been recovered from the major oil marketers, and that the outstanding debt now stands at N20,765,919,869.48.