The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has issued a 10-working-day ultimatum to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to provide a detailed explanation regarding the whereabouts of N210 trillion allegedly unaccounted for in its audited financial statements covering 2017 to 2023.

The Committee Chairperson, Aliyu Wadada (SDP, Nasarawa West), issued the directive during the committee’s meeting at the National Assembly on Thursday.

The directive was primarily because the NNPC Ltd failed to honour a prior invitation to appear before the committee to address discrepancies and unresolved financial entries flagged in its accounts.

“This committee is giving NNPC 10 working days from today to appear before the committee with the relevant questions, and I mean answers to the questions earlier issued for this investigation to continue,” he said.

The ultimatum seems to appear that the lawmakers are frustrated with the company’s perceived evasiveness and lack of cooperation in ongoing probes.

At a hearing held the previous week, members of the committee queried NNPC Ltd.’s Chief Financial Officer, Dapo Segun, and other top officials over suspicious expenditures and gaps in financial reporting.

The committee demanded explanations for the alleged N210 trillion unaccounted for in the company’s audit reports.

That initial directive gave the company seven days to respond, an ultimatum that expired without compliance.

Rather than appear, NNPC submitted a letter stating that its top officials could not attend the hearing due to an ongoing retreat.

The letter, signed by Adedapo Segun on behalf of the Group Managing Director, Bayo Ojulari, requested an extension of 20 days to enable the company to review relevant documents before responding to the committee’s queries.

However, after reading the letter at the session through its Clerk, Sani Abdullahi, the committee rejected the request and reaffirmed its 10-day deadline.

“If on that day, NNPC does not respond accordingly then this committee will have no option than to invoke all the powers available to the committee or to the Senate constitutionally,” the chairman warned.

If the committee invokes its constitutional powers as warned, it may resort to issuing a warrant for the arrest of the top officials of the company or escalating the matter to the plenary for Senate action.

This is not the first time government agencies have refused to comply with the legislative directive.

For instance, in August 2024, the same Senate committee had named NNPC Ltd, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Nigeria Police Force, and the Nigeria Immigration Service among several agencies that failed to account for missing funds in their 2019 audited reports.

Despite widespread public interest and repeated queries raised by the committee, little progress has been recorded. Most of these probes have stalled, and the implicated agencies continue to operate without consequence.

Since the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly on 13 June 2023, the Senate has established numerous ad hoc committees for oversight functions, but only a few have yielded tangible outcomes.

Even public threats issued by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, to sanction inactive or non-performing senators have done little to enhance the effectiveness of legislative oversight.