Over the past year, a single figure (₦210 trillion) has dominated Senate hearings, media headlines, and public anger. It led to a former Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) boss being summoned, an arrest warrant being issued, and that same warrant being scrapped within 24 hours.
The inquiry began in May 2025, after lawmakers reviewed Auditor-General reports for 2019 and 2020. The Senate Public Accounts Committee then examined NNPCL’s audited financial statements prepared by external auditors, plus the records of National Petroleum Investment Management Services NAPIMS (now NNPC Upstream Investment Services), and raised questions about inconsistencies.
The NNPCL told the Senate committee chaired by Senator Ahmed Wadada that ₦103 trillion was spent as “accrued expenses” and ₦107 trillion was recorded as “receivables,” combining to ₦210 trillion.
The ₦103tn accrued expenses figure was recorded in NNPCL’s 2022 audited financial statements, while the ₦107tn sundry receivables figure was as of December 2023.
According to investigators, NNPCL claimed the ₦103 trillion accrued expenses were used for “Joint Venture (JV) Cash Calls” and “security for petroleum assets” in 2023.
The problem is that NNPCL’s total reported revenue for the five years before that (2017–2022) was only ₦24 trillion, making a single year’s ₦103tn expense claim look mathematically implausible to investigators.
On the receivables side, NNPCL partly attributed the ₦107 trillion (about $117 billion) to funds held in “defunct banks” but named no specific banks or amounts.
Committee chairman Wadada called this a lack of transparency that was “unacceptable” and said NNPC’s explanation “contradicts available facts and evidence provided by NNPC itself”.
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Beyond the headline ₦210tn, the committee found extra issues: an alleged duplication of subsidy deductions worth ₦3.8 trillion, deducted once from crude oil proceeds in NAPIMS accounts, and again from petroleum product proceeds in NNPCL’s books.
The panel also queried ₦5 trillion charged as direct production costs between 2017 and 2021.
Here’s one of the strangest findings: between 2017 and 2021, NAPIMS (NNPCL’s upstream investment arm) reported a ₦9 trillion profit, while NNPCL, the parent company, declared a ₦16 billion loss over the same period.
Senator Wadada questioned why NNPCL signed off on audited statements while internal reconciliation was still ongoing, warning it could affect investor confidence ahead of NNPCL’s planned Initial Public Offering (IPO).
For context: NAPIMS managed Nigeria’s share of Joint Venture oil assets and has since been renamed NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS).
This is a corporate service unit of NNPCL, not a separate subsidiary, according to NNPCL’s own past clarifications.
A profit/loss mismatch between an upstream investment arm and a commercial parent isn’t automatically fraud but without a clear consolidated reconciliation, it raises the transparency questions the Senate is now demanding answers to.
To put the scale of ₦210tn in perspective: NNPCL reported a profit after tax of ₦1.054 trillion for May 2025 alone. This is a 40% jump from April’s ₦748 billion.
In simple terms: that month, NNPCL made ₦6.008 trillion in total sales (revenue), and out of everything it had earned and paid in so far that year (January to April), it had already handed over ₦5.583 trillion to the Federal Government.
These figures are provisional and unaudited, covering NNPCL’s own operations only.
Even at this improved monthly pace, ₦210tn would take NNPCL roughly 15+ years of total revenue (at May 2025 rates) to generate, buttressing why the figure shocked lawmakers.
After former NNPCL CEO, Mele Kyari and other former officials were formally summoned in March 2026, Kyari failed to appear at a June 10, 2026 hearing.
The committee, then, ordered his arrest, with Senator Victor Umeh moving the motion. Kyari responded that he’d notified the committee in a letter dated May 11, 2026 that he was abroad for medical treatment, and never received any summons.
One day later, the full Senate reversed course. Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele cited Sections 4, 5, and 6 of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act, arguing such powers belong to the Senate President in matters relating to Senate proceedings, not individual committees.
The Senate declared that no committee may independently issue or execute arrest warrants, and reaffirmed that only the Senate President can authorize warrants compelling attendance.
Bamidele argued that Sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution grant investigative and oversight powers to the National Assembly but warned that “the power to issue a warrant affecting the liberty of a citizen is an extraordinary statutory power which must be exercised strictly in accordance with the procedure prescribed by law,” and that legislative investigations should not be mistaken for criminal trials.
The Senate also said statements suggesting guilt before investigations conclude “may prejudice proceedings.” This is a reference to Senator Oshiomhole’s comments calling NNPCL “a bunch of criminals and thieves,” which the chamber formally disowned.
Former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Umar Ajiya Isa maintains no funds are missing, calling the ₦210tn figure impossible given NNPCL’s ₦54.5tn total revenue over the period.
Meanwhile, the committee directed NNPCL to refund all production costs charged against crude oil revenue during the period under review, and earlier gave management a 48-hour ultimatum to provide a name-by-name list of “defunct banks” and original vouchers for the ₦103tn expenses, warning that failure could trigger a motion for a Judicial Commission of Inquiry.
The NNPCL funds Nigeria’s federal budget, fuel subsidies, and foreign debt servicing. It is also preparing for a public listing that depends on investor trust in its books.
Whether ₦210tn represents real loss or undocumented but legitimate spending, the unresolved question affects how much oil revenue actually reaches the public purse and how Nigeria’s institutions handle accountability when the numbers don’t add up.
