THE House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources, Upstream, yesterday started investigative hearing into the alleged non-remittance of over N6 trillion annual payment and $5.5 billion into the Federation Account by Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC.
Mr Yusuf Matachi, NPDC Managing Director, in his submission confirmed that the company was owing $1.7 billion, noting that it had signed agreement with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, on payment of $10 million on monthly basis.
Contrary to his presentation on the $10 million monthly repayment, the documents submitted by NPDC to the committee showed that: “DPR granted NPDC a payment of $50 million monthly payment in January 2017 to defray outstanding debt but the plan was not adhered to.”
The document, however, stated that “in October 2017, NPDC applied to pay $10 million monthly to clear part of the outstanding debt and it was approved by DPR. However no payment has been made.”
Represented by Folasade Odunuga, Matachi in his presentation, also confirmed that the company was owing $1.7 billion, and noted that the parties agreed that NPDC’s profits will be deducted from first line charge by DPR to avoid further accumulated debt.
Earlier in his welcome address, Victor Nwokolo, chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), noted that the exercise was in tandem with the provisions of the 1999 constitution. He assured that the investigative hearing was not aimed at witch-hunting any organisation or individual.
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