The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee will question officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over alleged financial breaches totalling more than N802.19bn.
The questioning is scheduled for Tuesday, October 6, 2026.
The allegations are contained in the Auditor-General for the Federation’s reports for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 financial years. The reports raised queries over procurement procedures, revenue management, payments and compliance with financial regulations by government agencies.
The committee is chaired by Bamidele Salam, who represents Ede North/Ede South/Ejigbo/Egbedore Federal Constituency of Osun State. It is empowered under Sections 85, 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and Order 20, Rule 6 of the House Rules, to examine public accounts and investigate revenue losses, non-remittance of statutory funds and breaches of financial regulations.
A committee member who spoke on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorised to speak on its behalf, said the Auditor-General’s reports raised questions against NNPC in its 2021, 2022 and 2023 audits. INEC will also explain issues raised in the 2022 and 2023 reports.
Hearing schedule
“On Tuesday at the National Assembly Complex, the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee will be questioning several agencies,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, we are starting on Monday, October 5, with some agencies including the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Federal Capital Territory Judicial Service Commission, Federal Colleges of Education, Okene and Gombe and the University Teaching Hospital, Ilorin. There are others I have not mentioned.
“Tuesday is special because we hope to have in the House the accounting officers and subject matter experts from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Independent National Electoral Commission.”
N514bn queried against NNPC
“For the NNPC L, I am aware that the Auditor General’s Report of 2021 raised alleged financial infractions of about N514bn, while in the case of INEC, we shall be looking at clarifications on alleged financial breaches of about N288.19bn as contained in the 2022 Auditor General for the Federation audit query,” the lawmaker said.
The N514bn queried against NNPC includes:
- N343.64bn: alleged irregular deductions from domestic crude oil sales
- N83.66bn: allegedly warehoused from miscellaneous revenue in a sinking fund account
- N82.95bn: alleged unauthorised deductions from Federation revenue
- N3.75bn: reported shortfall from the sale of petroleum products
The committee is expected to require NNPC to provide supporting documents and explanations on the transactions and respond to the audit queries.
INEC queries
The lawmaker said INEC has several questions to answer over procurement processes, payments to contractors and failure to remit statutory deductions. He said the queries cover transactions during the tenure of former INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who has since been appointed an ambassador.
“There are several audit queries concerning procurement procedures, payments made to contractors as well as failure to remit statutory deductions by the commission during the administration of the former INEC Chairman (Prof Mahmood Yakubu) who is now an ambassador,” he said.
Asked to detail the alleged misdeeds, the lawmaker said only that “there are questions to be asked on money spent starting from the 2019 general election.”
The Auditor-General’s 2022 report stated that more than N5.31bn was allegedly paid for smart card readers for the 2019 general election without prior approval of the Bureau of Public Procurement. INEC deployed the devices in 2019 before introducing the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System for the 2023 polls.
Audit query not proof of wrongdoing
The committee’s proceedings form part of its constitutional duty to examine the Auditor-General’s findings and require public institutions to account for expenditure and address outstanding queries.
An audit query does not by itself establish wrongdoing. The affected agency is entitled to respond and provide evidence or explanations before the committee reaches any conclusion.
Other agencies listed for questioning on Tuesday include the National Mathematical Centre, National Power Training Centre, National Research Institute for Chemical Technology and the National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency.
Efforts to obtain comment from Salam were unsuccessful, as calls to him went unanswered. He also did not respond to messages sent on WhatsApp.
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