The former Chief Financial Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Umar Ajiya, has denied the allegations of financial misappropriation against the company.
Ajiya made the statement when he was featured in a session of the Senate Public Accounts Committee investigating alleged misappropriation of funds, it was reported.
His comments followed those of the senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, who is said to have described NNPCL as a “house of thieves” – [allegations] that the NNPCL has denied.
Ajiya said the company had nothing to hide and dismissed the claims of misappropriation of funds.
He also said the company was incorporated and rebranded at a cost of ₦2.9 billion and not ₦5.8 billion.
“We are not thieves,” Ajiya said. NNPC was registered with ₦2.9 billion, not ₦5.8 billion. For the last five or six years I have been presenting and defending the company’s reports to this committee.
“I have to give assurance to Mr Chairman and distinguished Senators that are here today and in fact all Nigerians that there is no money missing.
The ex-CFO said the company had published its audited accounts in the interests of transparency and to combat public mistrust.
Ajiya said, “Let me put it very clearly that if there was any money that actually went missing in NNPC in our period we would not have had the courage to publish the audited accounts in the last 44 years.
“The accounts were prepared and never hid from the public and even sometimes with the Auditor-General of the Federation.
“So we made it a duty upon us not only to give to the Auditor-General, but also to put it on our website, let Nigerians criticise and scrutinise to come out of the opaqueness and that lack of trust that the public had on NNPC.
