The viral claim that ₦210 trillion vanished from NNPCL between 2017 and 2023 doesn’t pass the market-woman test, a youth accountability group says. Now its asking the Senate to prove it — or pull it.

In a statement Friday, signed by Mr Johnson Momodu for the Fiscal Accountability Committee of Tomorrow, FACT, the group tore into the Senate probe’s headline number, calling it “a category error disguised as a scandal.”

“Before outrage, before television panels, there is a simple duty we owe ourselves: check the math,” FACT said.

Their math: Nigeria’s entire 2024 budget is ₦28.7 trillion. The alleged missing sum is more than seven times that.

“In plain language, the allegation suggests one company handled value equal to over seven full years of Nigeria’s total national budget within a seven-year window,” the group said. “Even without a calculator, something should feel off.”

FACT argues the ₦210 trillion isn’t cash. It’s a mashup of liabilities NNPCL owes — JV costs, royalties — and receivables owed to NNPCL, like subsidy claims.

“Adding them together and presenting the total as ‘missing money’ is not a minor error. It is a fundamental misunderstanding, or worse, a convenient distortion,” the statement read.

The group’s analogy: “If you owe your landlord ₦500,000 and someone else owes you ₦500,000, you are not one million naira poorer. You are balanced, at least on paper.”

Even the Senate admits it never said ₦210 trillion was stolen, FACT noted, citing Committee Chairman Senator Wadada. “Once you remove the suggestion of theft, what remains is not a scandal yet. What remains is an accounting question.”

So FACT wants three things, fast:

1. Show the working: Publish the full methodology behind the ₦210 trillion figure.

2. Break the number down: Separate actual losses from liabilities and receivables.

3. Name names or money trails: Has any part been traced to an individual, account, or unlawful payment?

“If the answer is no, then what we have is not a financial crime established in fact. What we have is a number in search of meaning,” FACT said.

The group insists it’s not defending anyone. “We are a coalition of Nigerian youths, accountants, and citizens who are simply tired of watching public debate collapse under the weight of exaggerated figures that defy common sense.”

Their bottom line to the Senate: “Show us the math. Or withdraw the figure.”

Because right now, FACT says, ₦210 trillion “behaves like a headline,” not a real number.

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