The House of Representatives committee investigating the missing 48 million barrels of Bonny Light crude has invited the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, over a reported undocumented financial transaction.
The house requested that the apex bank governor provide details on the N32.5 billion paid to two companies — Messrs GSCL Consulting and Bizplus — without formal records.
The lawmakers are also investigating an alleged payment of $200 million to the firms for “consultancy service”.
The former managing director of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the auditor-general of the federation, the accountant-general of the federation, the minister of foreign affairs, managing directors of Exxon Mobil, Nigeria Agip Oil company, and others were also invited by the committee.
During the investigative hearing, the chairman of the ad hoc committee, Mark Gbillah, noted that available records showed that the CBN paid N16.5 billion to each of the two aforementioned companies on the same day.
Gbillah also revealed that the amount was withdrawn by the companies in the space of two months.
The lawmaker said it was important for Nigerians to know why the CBN paid such money to the companies, especially when the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, denied knowledge of the payments.
Gbillah also expressed displeasure at the failure of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to provide answers to the questions the committee had sent to the energy firm over a lack of clarity.
