Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
House of Representatives has directed all oil companies that have defaulted in their contributions to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) up to the end of July 2018, to make all outstanding payments due to the commission.
The affected oil companies are Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Midwestern Oil and Gas Company Limited, Amni International Petroleum, Dubri Oil Company Limited, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Limited and Chorus Energy Limited.
Chairman, House Ad-hoc Committee, investigating all outstanding sums due to NDDC since 2000,Ahmed Chachangi, gave the directive yesterday, at the resumed hearing of the committee.
Addressing the defaulting oil firms at yesterday’s investigative hearing, Chachangi said: “You must obey the law and remit your indebtedness by July and bring the receipts to this panel by August. It is the law; you are not doing a favour to the NDDC. The money enables them to execute projects in the Niger Delta and make the environment conducive for your operations.”
The NDDC Managing Director, Nsima Ekere, had, on Tuesday, told the committee that the oil companies, as well as the Federal Government, have not been meeting their obligations to the interventionist agency and appealed to the House to intervene in the matter.
Speaking at the hearing, NPDC Managing Director, who was represented by Manager, Tax, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, admitted that his company’s total indebtedness to NDDC to date stands at N54.9 billion.