The Senate
may have commenced investigations of some banks over alleged collusion with
International Oil Companies (IOCs) to defraud the country.
Over
$62.9billion was said to have been taken out of the country under suspicious
circumstances between August 2009 and December 2014.
The
“investigation of the pre-shipment inspection of export activities in Nigeria”
was being conducted by the Senate joint committee on Finance, Trade and
Investment, Gas, Petroleum Upstream, Banking, insurance and other Financial
Institutions, Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, and Customs and
Excise.
A document
obtained by Daily Sun showed that affected banks were asked to submit all
copies of certified Nigeria Export Proceed (NXP) issued or processed by them in
respect of all crude oil and gas exported by three oil companies and their
affiliates between April 1996 and December, 2016.
Affected
banks were also asked to submit all domiciliary accounts opened and or closed
within the period specified for all crude oil and gas exported.
Two banks appeared
before the investigative joint committee on Thursday while other banks said to
be associated with the export of oil and gas were equally billed to appear.
A member of
the committee, Senator Yusuf Yusuf (Taraba State), said the Senate wanted to
know why funds brought into the country as oil export proceeds were wholly
withdrawn a day after such proceeds were brought into the country.
He said the
probe became necessary because the banks had the obligation under the law to
ensure that petroleum products exporters did the right thing by obeying the
guidelines and laws of the country.
He said: “It
is worrisome that money comes in today, tomorrow the same amount goes out of
the country. The practice runs through statement of account submitted by the
banks. The oil companies bring in $20 billion today, tomorrow $20 billion is
taken out from the account.
“The banks
are colluding with multi-national oil companies to defraud the country. The
government relies on the banks, the banks are now colluding with the multi-national
oil companies.”
He noted
that it was obvious that the country was not getting the correct export
proceeds from oil and gas exports. The lawmaker who insisted that banks must
abide by the law said it was worrisome that no indications were made about who
paid for oil exports.
He said the
committee wanted to know why the same oil company that exported products was
the same company that paid for it without indication of who actually bought the
products and the corresponding bank.
Chairman of
the joint committee, Senator John Enoh, said that the committee would also
ensure that banks were not colluding with IOCs to flout the laws of the
country.
He said the
committee would take a critical look at the submissions made by the banks to
come to terms with the true position of oil and gas exports proceeds processes.
One of the
documents submitted to the committee showed that one of the affected banks
operated multiple domiciliary proceeds accounts for the oil companies.
The
committee resolved to go through documents submitted by the banks before coming
up with its recommendations.
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