The Senate Public Accounts Committee has issued a strict one-week ultimatum to the external auditors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) to produce comprehensive documents explaining over ₦210 trillion recorded as receivables and payables in the company’s audited financial statements.
The directive was handed down on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, during a tense investigative hearing at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja. The committee, chaired by Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, firmly rejected a request by the external auditors for a two-week extension to retrieve their audit working papers, insisting that a financial entry of such unprecedented magnitude must be justified without delay.
At the heart of the ongoing parliamentary probe are two massive, un-reconciled entries in NNPC Ltd.’s certified financial reports stated ₦107 trillion recorded as receivables and ₦103 trillion listed as payables.
Committee members expressed deep concern that neither the national oil company nor its independent auditors had provided proper schedules identifying the transactions, calculations, or specific counterparties tied to the combined ₦210 trillion sum.
During the hearing, representatives of the audit firm argued that NNPC Ltd. remained their client and that detailed explanations should ideally be provided by the state-owned oil firm’s management. They further cited commercial confidentiality obligations.
However, lawmakers strongly pushed back against the defense. Senator Adams Oshiomhole reminded the independent auditors that they bear full professional accountability for any financial statements they certify.
“The inability to identify the components of both figures is precisely why this committee considers the combined amount of over ₦210 trillion as unexplained,” a committee member noted. “We are not saying the money is missing. We are saying the figures remain unexplained. For amounts of this magnitude to remain unreconciled in audited financial statements is deeply concerning.”
Chairman Dankwambo questioned why the independent firm could not instantly produce the backing data if they had already signed off on the accounts. He noted that if the figures were validly certified, the supporting schedules should already exist within the firm’s immediate working files.
The committee emphasized that because NNPC Ltd. is wholly owned by the Federal Government on behalf of the Nigerian public, it cannot invoke commercial secrecy to shield its books from parliamentary oversight under Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution.
The external auditors were subsequently discharged from the day’s proceedings and ordered to reappear before the Senate panel in exactly seven days. They are expected to submit a meticulous breakdown of the ₦107 trillion in receivables and ₦103 trillion in payables, alongside the exact technical basis upon which the multi-trillion naira accounts were validated.
