Senate Committee Ends Probe On Missing $49.8bn As Claimed By Sanusi

Senate Committee has said they could not see
how the suspended governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeira (CBN) Lamido Sanusi arrived
at the figure of $49.8billion allegedly missing
from the Federation Account and described
the figure as untrue.
Photo: Lamido Sanusi
It was added that only $20 billion was
missing. The Committee Chairman on Finance
Senator Ahmed Makarfi made this known in
the yesterdays report, which said "there was
nothing like unremitted $49.8 billion",
Vanguard provides.
It would be recalled that Sanusi wrote a letter
to President Goodluck Jonathan accusing the
state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation of failure to remit almost $50bn
generated from crude oil sale. This
information caused hot debates among
Nigerians and top officials of the country, who
called on thorough investigation of the
allegations.
However the report admitted the fact of
missing $20 billion, which amount is to be
accounted for. According to the document,
$3.524bn spent on subsidy for Premium
Motors Spirit by the Petroleum Products
Pricing and Regulatory Agency, which part of
the twenty-million amount, was covered by
the Appropriation Acts of 2012 and 2013.
Meanwhile $3.512bn for kerosene subsidy was
not appropriated for by the National
Assembly.
After the probe the Committee urged the
NNPC to remit and refund $262 million to the
Federation Account as the expenses, which
could not be defended during the
investigation.
Shortly after the scandal Jonathan suspended
Sanusi , which many attributed to the crude oil
money allegations, but President claimed that
it was because recklessness and misconduct
observed during his tenure. Soon Sanusi filed
suit to challenge his suspension, however it
was dismissed on May 20 by the Federal High
Court in Abuja allegedly lacking the
jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
Controversies continue tracking this story.