Senator Dino Melaye, lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District, has raised an alarm over alleged corruption and operation of a secret account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other joint venture companies.
Melaye raised a point of order at plenary on Tuesday. He alleged that the account, which was supposed to be domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria, was with Keystone Bank and had no Bank Verification Number, BVN. Also, he alleged that the account had a balance of $137m as of today (Tuesday).
“While some individuals and government appointees will continue to steal, we have decided to continue to expose corruption in public life.
“This morning, I call the attention of the Nigerian Senate to a suspected, colossal, monumental corruption in NNPC.
“A company was registered with the name ‘Brass LNG Limited’ with the Federal Government having controlling shares.
“We have some Italians, Belgians and French as shareholders, with the Federal Government with a controlling share of about 50 per cent.
“It is a known fact that once you have a joint venture, the account of such joint venture will be domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“But in this case, that was not what happened. In private, the account was opened with Keystone Bank; this account has no BVN and there has been periodic withdrawals (from it).
“The last withdrawal from the account was to the tune of $4m. As I speak to you, the balance of that account as of today is $137m,” he said.
Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, sought the permission of the other lawmakers to allow Melaye bring the matter up as a motion at the next legislative day, which was unanimously granted.
Melaye was asked to move the motion on Wednesday (tomorrow).
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