Police investigators discover $470m of NNPC cash lodged in commercial banks in defiance of TSA policy

NIGERIA Police Force (NPF) investigators have recovered $470.5m belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) stashed away in commercial banks in violation of the federal government policy instructing all parastatals to operate a treasury single account (TSA).

Upon assuming office in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari's government introduced the TSA regime which compels all government ministries and parsatatals to operate a single account. Designed to combat corruption, the arrangement was put in place to enable the finance ministry to easily track all payments to and from government departments.

However, police investigations have showed that payments to the NNPC from the Brass Liquefied Natural Gas  (LNG) facility have been hidden in several accounts in some commercial banks. NPF investigators also discovered another N8.8bn belonging to the NNPC/LNG which was also not remitted to the TSA.

Police spokesman, acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Jimoh Moshood, said: “On the assumption of office, the inspector-general of police Ibrahim Idris, created special units to handle high profile cases including terrorism, cyber and high-tech crimes, some of which includes the Monitoring Unit, Special Investigation Panel and Task Force on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism. As a result of these efforts, the Nigeria Police Force recovered monetary and non-monetary assets for the federal government."

Last year, seven commercial banks were ordered by a federal high court in Lagos to remit the sum of $793.2m to the federal government as the cash was lodged with them illegally by certain public officials in breach of the TSA policy. Among the banks affected by the order were United Bank for Africa (UBA), Diamond Bank, Skye Bank, First Bank, Fidelity Bank, Keystone Bank and Sterling Bank.