ATIKU ASKS TINUBU TO PROBE ₦11TRN NNPC SPENDING ON OIL ASSETS PROTECTION

Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to order a detailed investigation and disclosure of the ₦11.2 trillion recorded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as receivables from the Federation.

The demand followed the release of NNPCL’s 2025 audited financial statements, which recorded about ₦11.2 trillion under other receivables from the Federation, including costs associated with securing Nigeria’s oil and gas assets. The company said the expenditure was incurred under an approved framework that allows it to spend on oil and gas asset protection and subsequently recover the costs from the Federal Government.

Atiku said Nigerians deserve a full breakdown of the expenditure, particularly the amount spent on pipeline surveillance, the beneficiaries of the payments, the contracts involved and the results achieved. He argued that the accounting figure alone does not show how much was specifically spent on pipeline security.  

He also questioned the scale of the expenditure in relation to Nigeria’s wider security challenges, calling for greater transparency and accountability in the management of public resources.

The former vice president further asked the Federal Government to disclose details of contracts involving companies providing security and other services to the oil sector, as well as any financial or material support allegedly provided by government contractors to President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign.  

NNPCL, however, has previously defended its integrated pipeline-security arrangements, saying they contributed to the recovery of Nigeria’s crude oil production from about 960,000 barrels per day in 2022 to an average of 1.71 million barrels per day in 2025.  

The controversy has therefore renewed calls for clearer disclosure of how funds allocated to protecting Nigeria’s critical petroleum infrastructure are spent and accounted for.