By Ben Agande
ABUJA — THE Senate, yesterday, directed its Committees on Petroleum (Upstream and Downstream) to investigate the recent claim by the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola, that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is insolvent and could not pay N450 billion owed the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC.

President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, gave the order yesterday following observations by Senator John Shagaya that the claims of NNPC’s insolvency has led to fear and anxiety among Nigerians at home and abroad.

Shagaya drew the attention of the Senate to the conflicting statements credited to Babalola and the Minister of Information and Communication, Professor Dora Akinyuli, on the true position of the state of finance of the NNPC.

He observed that “in the last 48 hours or so, there have been publications on the solvency or insolvency of Nigeria as a result of the comment made by the Minister of State (Finance). As a result of this comment, I have received calls from all over Nigeria and outside this country.

“A former Attorney-General of the Federation was speaking on Channels Television this morning (yesterday) that the Minister of State (Finance) was economical with the truth.

“I believe this issue will generate a lot of reactions from Nigerians and in my considered opinion, as serious as the matter is, the Senate should be able to look into the matter.”

Mark, in his response, decried the double-speak of Federal Government officials, noting that this is capable of misleading or causing more confusion to the people.

Mark said: “Truly, my own decision on this, nobody has got the facts now, my ruling will be that the Committees on Petroleum (upstream and downstream) should go and find out and come and brief us because at the moment nobody has the facts.

“So, Senators Lee Maeba and Emmanuel Paulker should jointly go and find out and report back next week. So you should find out whether NNPC is solvent or insolvent. The discordant note from the Federal Government is very unfortunate and I think they should be united in what they are saying.”