By SAMUEL OGIDAN, Abuja

The upper chamber of the National Assembly has summoned the Governor of Central Bank of Nigerian (CBN), Godwin Emefiele over alleged missing $9.5m interest accrued from Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) investment.

PPT is a tax applicable to upstream operations in the oil industry. It is particularly related to rents, royalties, margins and profit sharing elements associated with oil mining, prospecting and exploration leases.

The CBN Governor was given 72 hours to appear before the Senate committee on Public Account to explain the disappearance of the money before the Committee.

The committee chaired by Senator Matthew Urhoghide, noted that the principal sums deposited, the tenor and rate of interest were shrouded in secrecy.

Explaining why the CBN Governor was summoned, Urhoghide said that there are many issues Emefiele needs to respond to corroborate some statements of account.

The CBN Governor, the committee emphasized has till Thursday this week to appear.

It could be recalled that the committee had two weeks ago summoned the officials of the apex bank over alleged disappearance of the fund. But, the Apex Bank failed to appear before the lawmakers.

The summon of the CBN Governor followed the consideration of a report by Auditor-General for the Federation, which probed the spendings of federal government’s agencies.

According to the report, “during the examination of transfers to Foreign Excess PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Accounts, it was observed that during the year 2016, amount totalling $6 million and $3.5 million were credited to the Foreign PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Account as interest on funds investments.

“The authority for placing the funds which yielded the above interests totaling $9.5 million in deposit account, the principal sums deposited, the tenor and rate of interest were not made available for audit verification.

“This observation had also been a subject of my reports since 2017 without any positive response from Central Bank of Nigeria.

“Records made available for audit further revealed that the balance in the foreign PPT/Royaltt and Foreign Excess Crude accounts as at 28th December 2016 were USD0.00 and USD251,826 respectively.

“This suggest the foreign PPT/Royalthy was depleted before the year end.

“The Accountant General has been requested to provide the authority for the funds invested, tenor of the investment, rate unrest payable, certficate for the funds invested and forward same for audit verification. (Daily Independent)

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