The Kano Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has recovered a total sum of N328,988,296,990.62 from nine major oil marketers across the country.

The nine major oil firms include NNPC retails, Conoil Plc, Total Plc, OVH Energy Plc, Oando Plc, Forte Oil and Gas Plc, Mobil Plc, MRS Oil Plc, and NIPCO Oil Plc .

The recovered amount is for products collected from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and its subsidiary, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, without payments as at when due.

The EFCC achieved such feat by acting on a petition accusing officials of the NNPC and PPMC of conniving with major oil marketers to divert the sum of N40 billion belonging to government.

In a Statement made available to Vanguard, the EFCC said it referred the petition to a special task force which swung into action uncovering that the oil marketers were actually indebted to the federal government to the tune of N91,519,485,204.44 between 2010 and 2016.

“Further investigation into the allegation also revealed that the oil marketers had continued to obtain petroleum products from the government without proper payment in violation of the NNPC/PPMC credit facility regulations. “The probe of the firms led to the discovery of N258,928,926,351.93 being the amount they held back from the oil corporation. “Following the latter discovery, the total amount of debt which was due the government oil agency stands at N349,818,411,556.37.

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“Upon the conclusion of the preliminary investigation, officials of NNPC/PPMC and all the managing directors of the concerned companies which are NNPC retails, Conoil Plc, Total Plc, OVH Energy Plc, Oando Plc, Forte Oil and Gas Plc, Mobil Plc, MRS Oil Plc, and NIPCO Oil Plc were invited to the Kano Zonal Office of the Commission where their statements were recorded following which the recovery process commenced. “So far, a sum of N328,988,296,990.62 has been recovered from the major oil marketers. “The outstanding debt now stands at N20,765,919,869.48,” EFCC said.