Nigerian Police Recover Stolen State Oil Funds

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): Nigerian police on Thursday said they had recovered $470.5 million (€400 million) in state oil company funds that had been siphoned off into private bank accounts.

Police said they discovered the money linked to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation's (NNPC) Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) business unit during a nationwide exercise to recover stolen funds.

A total of "$470,519,889.10 belonging to NNPC Brass/LNG Investment hidden in some commercial banks after the directives of the federal government on Treasure Single Account," police spokesman Jimoh Moshood told Reuters news agency in an emailed statement.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who won the 2015 election campaigning on anti-corruption, had ordered government revenues to be placed in a Treasury Single Account (TSA) at the central bank as part of an anti-corruption drive. Money recovered from suspected graft was also to be put in the account.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest crude oil producer and has one of the continent's largest economies. About 83 percent of its export earnings come from petroleum sales.

In early 2017 the country came out of its first recession in 25 years, which was largely a result of low oil prices.

A number of reports in recent years have suggested mismanagement and corruption in Nigeria's oil and gas industry cost the West African nation billions of dollars annually. 

Courtesy: www.dw.com