Reps quiz oil coy over non-payment of over $17m royalty
The Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives investigating huge amounts of debts owed the Federal Government of Nigeria FGN by oil companies has mandated the Management of Eloton Oil Coy Ltd to immediately pay the outstanding $17 million indebtedness in oil royalty to it.
The Chairman of the House Ad-hoc Committee Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha made the call to the Management of the company represented by the Head of Projects Mr Dele Aikohomobare at an investigative hearing organised by the probe panel on Tuesday in Abuja.
Onyejeocha said that the Ad-hoc Committee was prepared to recover all the monies owed the federal government noting that the company and many others are owing the government in excess of $28 billion, and there are so many oil companies owing in this regard.
According to the lawmaker, the Committee is not desirous of calculating all the interests accruing to the federal government from oil royalties but intended to collect a percentage of it to fund annual budgets.
She stressed that the federal government has been unable to fund its annual budgets due to failure of many oil operating companies to pay royalties running into billions of naira and in foreign currencies.
She said, “Some companies have fully paid for their operations.
“When are you paying the $29 million? My records show that you are owing oil royalty.”
Earlier, a member of the Ad-hoc Committee Hon. Benjamin Kalu had asked the probe panel to give the oil companies one week to make consultations and pay the debts owed the government.
Head of Projects of the company, Mr Dele Aikohomobare said that the delay in payment of the money to the government was due to the loss of $247million to Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation NNPC/Sherin joint venture.
He informed the Committee that the company had entered into a negotiation with the Nigeria Ports Authority NPA, and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation NNPC to ensure seamless payment of the debt.
Other oil companies including Seplat Energy Ltd and Western Oil Nigeria Ltd said that they had complied with the payment of the oil royalties to the federal government.
A representative of the Managing Director of Western Oil Nigeria Ltd Mr Omo Omorodiob said that the company had paid all its outstanding royalties to the federal government between 2019 and 2022.
However, Hon. Onyejeocha in a ruling said that the major defaulting companies are given only one week by the committee to make consultations with stakeholders with a view to offsetting the debts.
