$100m probe: Reps issues 10-day ultimatum to NNPC GMD

House of Reps Committee on Insurance & Actuarial Matters, has issued a 10-day ultimatum to the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari to appear before it over a $100m premium allegedly paid by the NNPC and Joint Ventures (JVs) for non-existing assets overseas.

Rep. Darlington Nwokocha, Chairman of the Committee who flagged off and presided over the 10-day investigative hearing/pre-forensic Audit meeting that began sitting on Monday issued the ultimatum after the NNPC boss failed to appear before it.

He explained that the exercise was necessitated by alleged breaches on insurance by insurance business by practitioners; low retention capacity of dollar-denominated insurance business and the effect on the economy; and under-utilisation of capacity of insurance policy, the practice and effects of domiciling insurance ventures abroad.

Nwokocha explained that after the pre-forensic meeting, the Committee would deploy Forensic Auditors to NNPC and all the MDAs as well as insurance companies and brokers handling the portfolios.

“And we cannot do magic to get these information because already we have enough information from everywhere but we must compare what we have with what you are bringing; what the insurance companies will bring, what the NNPC will bring, and what the larger society has brought, so that we give everybody fair hearing.

“And this is not something we are talking about and some people are taking it so lightly that they are doing some other businesses here and there. We cannot tolerate that. When we invite you for any reason you are not here, we will compel you to come; we have the mechanism, we have the instrumentality to drive the process to make sure that you will come.

“It won’t work, we must summon you to come, definitely and we don’t want to get to that level,” Nwokocha said.

Earlier, Mr. Umar Ajia, Chief Financial Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, explained that the NNPC Group Managing Director, Mr. Mele Kyari could not attend the investigative hearing because he needs to hold meeting with associations of oil workers, namely Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).

Rep. Nwokocha in his ruling issued a 10-day ultimatum to the NNPC Group Managing Director to appear with relevant documents and take into cognizance all the inadequacies in the previous documents submitted to the Committee.

He said all the stakeholders are to re-appear before the Committee on the 31st August, 2020.