Reps begins probe into AP shares

Okey Muogbo, Abuja - 14.01.2008

THE House of Representatives, through its Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, has launched probe into what happened to the money paid by Zenon Petroleum to acquire AP Petroleum shares.

This followed controversy which had arisen on what happened to the money. One of the controversies was that the money was lodged in some banks by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Pension Fund.

The controversy began at a public hearing by the committee where Zenon Oil confirmed that it actually paid N17 billion against N14 billion claimed to have been paid by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Discoveries made during the public hearing had made the committee to request NNPC to provide detail accounts of pension contribution by the staff of AP before and after the company was sold by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).

Since the discovery, the committee had expressed worry on the allegations that N16 billion of revenue it generated for government in the sale of African Petroleum shares had been diverted into a “call” account serviced by the NNPC Pension Fund Limited.