Sources said the president is enraged over the issue and has vowed that any official found to be involved in the corrupt practice will be punished according to extant rules.
This is just as financial experts say the Federal Government may have lost billions of naira through the fraudulent practice of converting dollar earnings to naira before remitting such earnings to the federation account, a crime the federal government is currently investigating and has vowed to punish those involved.
According to the experts, the act is criminal as most of the dollar earnings may have been converted through unofficial channels and at unofficial rates, and that acts such as this may be responsible for the volatility of the naira.
A presidency source told LEADERSHIP Sunday over the weekend that last Thursday’s announcement of the corrupt practice which has been going on for long now was not the first time the issue was brought to the knowledge of the federal government. He said the matter was already known to the authorities and investigation had been going on to unravel the extent of the sleaze and those involved in it.
The source who preferred anonymity because he was not mandated to speak on the issue, said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government was not leaving any stone unturned in ensuring that those involved in the corrupt practice are found and punished, and whatever revenue accruing to the government, that may have been siphoned through this means is recovered.
According to the source, some officials of the NNPC, NPA and NIMASA found to have been involved, from preliminary investigations, had been either arrested or invited for questioning by relevant anti-corruption agencies of the government.
This followed a revelation by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, during the monthly meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC), where he disclosed that some agencies of government, including but not limited to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) had over time, been remitting dollar earnings to government coffers in naira.
Governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting, confirmed that investigations were on going.
Meanwhile, the NNPC has confirmed that earnings from sale of crude are remitted to the federation account in naira, and not in dollars. The corporation however denied that some of its officials had been arrested for questioning as part of the ongoing investigations.
Spokesman of NNPC, Ohi Alegbe, when contacted by LEADERSHIP Sunday, denied that staff of the corporation had been arrested by security operatives over remittances of dollar revenue in Naira.
Alegbe who spoke to our correspondent on phone, said, “as far as I know, no staff of the NNPC has been arrested by any security agency. Not one.”
While faulting the story making the rounds, Alegbe explained that the corporation normally remits revenue from the 445,000 barrels of crude oil allocated to it daily for domestic consumption in naira.
“When we dispose of the 445,000 barrels of crude allocated to the NNPC daily, the revenue is remitted in naira to the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) not in dollars.
”All other revenue, including those from the NNPC retail outlets are also remitted in naira to FAAC,” the NNPC spokesman added.
He further explained that the corporation has begun a publication of its financial operations and revenue remittances to the federal government, stating that the figures are all in the public domain for anyone interested to access.
Credit: Leadership
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