By Uzair Adam
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has taken legal action against the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) over its failure to explain the whereabouts of N825 billion and $2.5 billion allegedly allocated for refinery rehabilitation and other oil-related revenues.
The lawsuit, filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Lagos (Suit No. FHC/L/MISC/722/25), seeks a mandamus order compelling NNPCL to account for the missing funds. SERAP also wants the company to recover and remit the money into the Federation Account.
The group further requests that the court direct NNPCL to identify individuals responsible for the missing funds, surcharge them, and hand them over to appropriate anti-corruption agencies for investigation and prosecution.
SERAP’s action follows the revelations in the 2021 audited report by the Auditor-General of the Federation, published on November 27, 2024.
The report raised concerns about several unaccounted financial transactions involving the NNPCL.
Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group, recently echoed similar concerns, suggesting that the NNPCL refineries may never work again, despite \$18 billion reportedly spent on them.
According to SERAP, the allegations point to gross violations of public trust and various legal obligations, including those enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution and international anti-corruption frameworks.
The suit details several financial discrepancies. Among them are over N82 billion deducted from crude oil sales for refinery repairs between 2020 and 2021, and more than N343 billion from domestic crude sales, reportedly for pipeline maintenance.
The Auditor-General fears these amounts may have been diverted and recommends their recovery.
Other flagged transactions include N83 billion from NNPC joint venture operations withdrawn from a suspense account, over N204 billion in unjustified deductions from oil royalties, and more than N3.7 billion paid to a company as a shortfall on PMS cargo sales.
The audit report also highlighted N28 billion in outstanding bridging allowances from NNPC retail, over N13.5 billion from three major oil marketers, and over N15 billion owed by 26 marketers—all from 2021.
Further, the NNPCL reportedly failed to collect over $2 billion and N48 billion in outstanding royalties from oil companies for the same year, a situation the Auditor-General says has likely hindered budget implementation.
SERAP’s legal team, comprising Kolawole Oluwadare, Oluwakemi Oni, and Valentina Adegoke, emphasized in the court filing that the missing funds underscore a broader issue of systemic accountability failure within the NNPCL.