By Oscarline Onwuemenyi

Civil Society watchdog in the nation’s extractive industry, Publish What You Pay (PWYP), has called on the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to explain to Nigerians what has become of the over N5 billion of public funds lodged in some of the liquidated commercial banks.

It has also asked the Federal government to improve its assets recovery systems in the exploitation and sale of crude by oil companies, which has resulted in over N668.12 billion loss to the nation over the past 10 years.

National Coordinator of PWYP in Nigeria, Ms. Faith Nwadishi, raised these issues during a visit to the offices of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transpareny Initiative, NEITI, in Abuja. She further noted that the attitude of government Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to winning the war against corruption is abysmal, which is substantiated by the unending corruption in the oil, gas and the banking sectors exposed in the NEITI audit reports of 1999-2004.

PWYP expressed concern over the “attitude of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation towards the liquidation and merger of 11 commercial banks, which collected petroleum profit tax from oil companies and have refused to remit such fund to the CBN, and the role of the NDIC as liquidator to failed Nigeria commercial banks, to have liquidated these said banks without a reflection of trapped funds paid to the CBN.

“These discrepancies became obvious with the release of the NEITI audit report of 1999-2004, where it was captured that 11 commercial banks have trapped over N5 billion naira public funds from the Extractive Industry (EI),” it stated.

According to PWYP, “To withhold public funds unconstitutionally is a crime and against human rights. To further, trade with such funds and declare profit on it, transgress the money laundering act.

“We use this medium to re-emphasise our call on the NDIC to explain to Nigerians how the revenues from oil and gas reported to be trapped in these failed banks were liquidated.

The group also condemned the current inefficient practice of governments towards the effective management and utilization of Nigeria revenue flow which tilts towards empowering a few people and companies against the majority of Nigerians in the lower class.