‘We Are Not Thieves’ – NNPCL Replies Oshiomhole

A former Chief Financial Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Umar Ajiya, has denied allegations of financial misconduct against the company, insisting that NNPC and its workers are not thieves.

Naija News reports that Ajiya made the statement during a session of the Senate Public Accounts Committee investigating alleged misappropriation of funds.

His comments followed allegations by the senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, who reportedly described NNPCL as a “house of thieves.”

Ajiya said the company had nothing to hide and rejected claims that funds were misappropriated.

He also clarified that ₦2.9 billion, not ₦5.8 billion, was spent on the incorporation and rebranding of the company.

Ajiya stated, “We are not thieves. ₦2.9 billion was used to register NNPC, not ₦5.8 billion. I have been presenting and defending the company’s reports to this committee over the last five or six years.

“I need to give assurance to Mr Chairman and distinguished Senators present here today, and in fact all Nigerians, that there is no money missing.”

The former CFO said the company had published its audited accounts to promote transparency and address public distrust.

Ajiya added, “Let me make it very clear that if money was actually missing in NNPC during our period, we would not have had the courage to publish the audited accounts in the past 44 years.

“The accounts were prepared and never kept hidden from the public, and even sometimes with the Auditor-General of the Federation.

“So we made it a duty upon us not only to give to the Auditor-General, but also to put it on our website, let Nigerians criticise and scrutinise to get out of the opaqueness and that lack of trust that the public had on NNPC.”