ABUJA — The Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) room descended into a theater of high-stakes mathematical disputes and political fireworks on Wednesday. Former Chief Financial Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Malam Umar Ajiya Isa, aggressively debunked widespread allegations that the state oil firm could not account for a staggering ₦210 trillion in public funds.
Appearing before the committee to address 19 queries raised by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation spanning 2017 to 2023, Ajiya told lawmakers that public perception had been dangerously warped by a fundamental misunderstanding of basic accounting principles.
The Math Deficit: Factoring the Trillions
Leaning into the microphone before an visibly agitated panel chaired by Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo (PDP, Gombe North), the former CFO delivered a direct reality check regarding the sheer volume of money being tossed around in the media.
“Mr. Chairman and distinguished senators, I want to assure this committee and indeed, all Nigerians, that no money is missing,” Ajiya stated firmly. “The entire revenue earned by NNPCL during the period under review—assuming we did not even spend a single kobo to produce a single barrel of crude oil—was ₦54.5 trillion. It is a mathematical impossibility for ₦210 trillion to be missing from an ecosystem that only generated ₦54.5 trillion in gross receipts.”
Ajiya challenged critics and petitioners to explain where such an astronomical sum would have materialised from, noting that the national oil company had broken a 44-year jink of opacity by deliberately publishing its audited financial statements on its public website.
“If any money had gone missing during our period of supervision, we would not have had the audacity or the courage to publish our audited accounts for public scrutiny,” he argued.
The Oshiomhole Clash and the Registration Dispute
The hearing grew particularly tense when Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North) engaged Ajiya in a heated back-and-forth over specific line items within the legislative queries.
One of the sharpest points of contention was the allegation that NNPCL had spent ₦5.8 billion on a third-party consultant to facilitate its corporate registration as a limited liability entity under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Ajiya flatly denied the multi-billion naira claim, describing it as “inaccurate and damaging.” He explained that the actual sum expended was ₦2.9 billion, paid directly into the coffers of two fellow statutory arms of government: the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), now the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS).
According to the former finance chief, the confusion likely arose because the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) and NNPCL recorded the transaction across different books in accordance with standard double-entry bookkeeping, leading uninitiated reviewers to double-count the figure.
An Arrest Warrant in Absentia
While Ajiya stood his ground on the numbers, the committee took a severe, uncompromising stance against his former principal, the immediate past Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPCL, Malam Mele Kyari.
Following a motion moved by Senator Victor Umeh (LP, Anambra Central) and seconded by Deputy Chairman Senator Peter Nwaebonyi (APC, Ebonyi North), the committee issued a formal warrant of arrest for Kyari.
Lawmakers rejected pleas for leniency from Senators Saliu Mustapha and Tony Nwoye, who argued that Kyari was currently undergoing critical medical treatment in Germany. Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) insisted that verbal claims of illness without formal documentation could not override the Senate’s authority, noting that this marked the ninth consecutive time the committee had met on these specific queries without the former GCEO appearing.
Ajiya, alongside former Chief Upstream Investment Officer Dr. Bala Wunti, was directed to reappear before the panel in two weeks for a continuation of the financial inquest.
