Crude Oil Theft Probe: Senate Condemns NNPCL Management’s Consistent Failure to Honour Summons

The Nigerian Senate has expressed strong condemnation towards the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) for their consistent failure to appear before the legislative body. A crucial Senate committee, tasked with investigating crude oil theft and reviewing petroleum laws, was forced to proceed with its deliberations without the presence of NNPCL's top officials. This repeated absence led to a walkout by the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Senator Allwell Heacho Onyesoh, who described the corporation's conduct as an affront to the National Assembly's constitutional oversight powers. Senator Onyesoh lamented that the committee had repeatedly invited the NNPCL to provide explanations and documentary evidence concerning the nation's oil industry, but the company's leadership consistently evaded these summons. He stressed that legislative oversight is a constitutional obligation, not an optional matter, and that no government agency, especially one managing Nigeria's most vital national asset, should consider itself too important to account to the people's representatives. The senator dismissed the NNPCL's recurring excuse of officials being on official trips abroad as unacceptable, questioning the necessity of the entire management team traveling simultaneously. He argued that such persistent absence fuels public suspicion regarding the company's willingness to submit to legislative scrutiny and urged adherence to the laws of the land. Onyesoh also clarified that while the NNPCL is accountable to the National Assembly, he absolved President Bola Tinubu of any responsibility for the corporation's conduct.

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We are not contractors. We are simply asking questions. Give us facts. Give us records. We want to study them. That is our constitutional responsibility.