The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has recovered N329 billion diverted by nine major oil marketers in the country.
The marketers include Conoil Plc, Total Plc, OVH Energy Plc, Oando Plc, Forte Oil and Gas Plc, Mobil Plc, MRS Oil Plc, NIPCO Oil Plc, the Punch reports.
The EFCC, in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, on Wednesday said the recovery followed a petition it received that oil marketers had connived with some ranking officials of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to divert N40 billion.
But after investigating the allegation, the anti-graft commission discovered that the money actually diverted was way more than the N40 billion alleged in the petition.
“Findings by the operatives of the EFCC revealed that the oil marketers were actually indebted to the Federal Government to the tune of N91,519,485,204 between 2010 and 2016.
“Further investigations into the allegation also revealed that the oil marketers had continued to obtain petroleum products from the government without proper payment in violation of the NNPC/PPMC credit facility regulations; a probe of which further led to the discovery of N258,928,926,351.93.
“Following the latter discovery, the total amount of debt stands at N349,818,411,556.37.”
The commission said after it made the discovery it invited the officials NNPC and the managing directors of the indicted oil companies to its regional office in Kano and their statements were taken. “The outstanding debt now stands at N20,765,919,869.48,” the anti-graft agency stated.
The commission said it still expects to recover N20.7 billion from the oil marketers.