Missing $20bn: Senate C’ttee Hasn’t Cleared Alison-Madueke, NNPC, Says Saraki

Senator representing kwara Central in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly, Dr. Bukola Saraki on Thursday denied media reports that the Senate Committee on Finance, of which he is a member, had cleared the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, of any wrong doing in the alleged missing $20 billion.

According to Saraki, nothing significant has changed in the report to suggest the clearing of the minister and the NNPC.

The senate had mandated its committee on Finance chaired by Senator Ahmed Makarfi to investigate the claim by the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that $20 billion was missing from the Federation Account.

Saraki, who is Chairman, Senate Committee on Ecology and Environment, stated that even though the report of the committee has been laid before the senate, more was still being done to shed light on the alleged missing oil money.

In a statement issued by his media aide, Bamikole Omishore, in Abuja today, Saraki urged the media to wait for the official release of the report to the public before jumping to conclusions.

The statement reads: “The recent media reports claiming that the Senate Committee on Finance has cleared NNPC of any unaccounted revenue fund are not true.

“Though I could not attend the last meeting of the committee, I have been very active in the investigation, nothing significant has changed to suggest clearing of anybody.

“I can say on behalf of the committee that these media reports bear no correlation to the content of the Senate Committee report and I would urge the public to disregard it in its entirety.

“The committee is yet to receive the report on the forensic audit and independent analysis on the subject clearly indicates we have a lot of grounds to cover in order to determine the level of culpability or otherwise of agency on the alleged non-committal, so to suggest any clearance for anybody at this stage is out of the question.

“I will further advise that the media should wait for the Senate to release the details of the committee report to the public before they jump into spurious conclusions”.