The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said it would resist any attempt to pay five per cent of its funds found in commercial bank to any whistle-blower.
Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC General Manager, Public Affairs, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.
The Police had said it recovered $470.5m and N8bn allegedly stashed and recovered from secret commercial bank accounts owned by the NNPC.
NNPC, however, denied hiding the funds, insisting that the funds were in the bank, pending transfer to the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Confirming that a few commercial banks had yet to complete remittance of dollar deposits to the TSA, Ughamadu said that the corporation had no funds hidden in any commercial bank as the Presidency,Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), and the Central Bank of Nigeria were fully aware and were receiving periodic status reports on balances yet to be remitted to TSA by commercial banks.
He said: “Following TSA implementation, the corporation had made a report to the Presidency on the failure of some commercial banks to complete transfer of US dollar deposits and a presidential directive was issued for the CBN to ensure that the funds were completely transferred to the corporation’s TSA dollars.
“Most of the commercial banks have since complied with the presidential directive and completed transfer to the corporation’s TSA in dollars, including the reported $470.5m.
“Consequently, the NNPC’s record of the dollar funds yet to be transferred by a few commercial banks cannot reflect the said recovery.
“While the CBN executes the presidential directive to ensure complete transfer of dollar funds to the corporation’s CBN TSA, it is pertinent to reiterate our earlier position that the NNPC will resist every attempt to subject these funds, which have been in the full view of the government, to five per cent whistle-blowing fees as this would be unreasonable and a sheer waste of public funds.”
