Yari raises alarm over N3.1trn oil funds

By Umaru Maradu
Gusau

Governor Abdul’azeez Yari of Zamfara state has declared that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Federal Ministry of Finance have failed to account for the whereabout of N3.1 trillion crude oil funds accrued from 2013 to date.
The governor made the declaration when he received members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Zamfara state chapter, who paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

According to him, the level  of corruption in Nigeria’s oil sector called for more pro-active checks by both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the NBA.
He noted that if the NNPC could transparently account for  the N3.1 trillion missing crude oil fund, the state’s share of  the money could have risen to over N45  billion and the amount would have been substantial enough to help torch  the lives of millions of Zamfara citizen.
Yari, therefore, called on the members of the NBA and the NLC to intimate the NNPC and Federal Ministry of Finance to account for this huge sum of money that is meant to transform the  life of Nigerian citizens.
He said: “Those in control of the resources at the centre know how  they are doing the arithmetics and quite a number of times during the Economic Council meeting state governors kept emphasizing on the need for the financial engineers, who allocate what for who, to be transparent in accounting for what exactly accrued through the sale of the nation’s crude oil. But any time  this issue is raised they will turn their ears into the deaf and, at the end, states will be left helpless.’’

The governor further noted that it is rather unfortunate over 40 years after crude oil has been discovered, the Nigerian government at the centre could not make an alternative arrangement that would support the oil industry as the building pillar of the nation’s economy, “and that is why today if Nigerian oil finished the country will definitely collapse.”