The House of Representatives has sought the intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over recovery of funds belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited in some commercial banks.
Chairman of the House Ad-hoc committee investigating the status of recovered movable and immovable assets, Adeogun Adejero (APC, Ondo) disclosed this when officials of Heritage, Polaris and other banks appeared before the committee on Thursday.
He said: “We sent a letter to the CBN in respect of Polaris, because we think the issues are straightforward and we are trying to deal with that as soon as possible.
“We won’t be able to do anything until we get that response from the CBN. NNPC is not here. We can solve the problem if the CBN can intervene.”
The Head of Heritage Bank’s Abuja and Northern Business operations, George Akwobo said, their bank has already reached an agreement with NNPC on how to repay $250,000 while processing another $500,000, to complete it at least by the first half of 2022.
Executive Director, North and Public Sector Directorate at Keystone, Lawal Ahmed, said: “Our position, as confirmed by the CFO of NNPC, was that we have remitted all the funds that were with us at our last meeting,” which he said $136.676 million.
“Out of this entire amount, we paid $96 million in and we paid the equivalent of $40m in Naira. That was the directive by the Attorney-General at the rate of N305 to a dollar. The schedule is also attached”.
However, a member of the committee, Olanrewaju Edun (APC, Oyo) objected to the approval of N305 to a dollar for the payment of $40m in Naira equivalent by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).
– Daily Trust