House of Representatives’ Ad Hoc Committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loots Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for Effective Efficient Management and Utilisation may soon invite the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), for ordering bank to convert revenue collected in dollars to naira before remittance.
A Deposit Money Bank, Keystone Bank, had told the committee that Malami instructed it to remit part of the $136m in its custody in naira while also determining the exchange rate, a revelation that the lawmakers criticised.
The Executive Director, North and Public Sector Directorate, Keystone Bank, Lawal Ahmed, at an investigative hearing by the committee in Abuja on Wednesday, told the lawmakers that the bank had remitted all the funds belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
In his presentation, Ahmed said, “Our position, as confirmed by the CFO of NNPC, was that we have remitted all the funds that were with us at our last meeting. You asked for clarification regarding some reversals from the statements of account, which we reviewed and confirmed that they were actually failed transactions.
The Chairman of the committee, Adejoro Adeogun, asked how much Keystone was supposed to return to the NNPC. The representative said the total figure established by the AGF was $136,676,600.51.
Giving a breakdown of the figure, Ahmed said, “Out of this entire amount, we paid in $96m in United States dollar and we paid the equivalent of $40m in naira. That was the directive by the Attorney-General at the rate of N305 to a dollar. The schedule is also attached.
