According to The Nation, the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has reportedly recovered N46 billion from oil marketers in a probe of massive fraud in oil lifting in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. The marketers whose names are yet to be disclosed because the investigation is yet to be concluded, lifted products without paying a dime to the defunct Petroleum Products and Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC now known as the National Petroleum Marketing Company (NPMC).
A top source in EFCC, who spoke in confidence said“When we conducted our investigation, we discovered that the affected marketers sourced products from NNPC through PPMC without paying for them. In some instances, these marketers got two or three supplies and paid for one.
“Through connivance, they cooked the books. We discovered that products worth about N100billion were lifted and unpaid for by marketers leading to the invitation and interaction with some of them. So far, we have been able to recover N46billion out of the N100billion which the nation had purportedly lost.”
The source alleged some forces within and outside NNPC and PPMC behind the syndicate almost frustrated the EFCC team investigating the “fraud”.
“The cartel wielded enormous influence in the sector and it almost frustrated the investigation and the recovery. As a matter of fact, some forces in NNPC and PPMC did not want us to go this far”he said