SERAP Sues Nigeria’s State-owned Oil Firm, Seeks Probe Of ‘Missing N500Billion Oil Funds’

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited over its "failure to account for and explain the whereabouts of the alleged missing N500 billion, which the NNPCL failed to remit to the Federation Account between October 2024 and December 2024."

The suit followed the recent allegations by the World Bank that out of the N1.1 trillion revenue from crude sales and other income in 2024, the NNPCL only remitted N600 billion, leaving a deficit of N500 billion unaccounted for.

In response to SERAP's Freedom of Information (FoI) request, the NNPCL had claimed through its lawyers, Afe Babalola and Co, that the FoI Act does not apply to it.

But in the suit numbered FHC/L/MSC/553/2025 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Lagos, SERAP is seeking "an order of mandamus to direct and compel the NNPCL to account for the alleged missing N500 billion, which it allegedly failed to remit to the Federation Account between October 2024 and December 2024."

SERAP is also asking the court to "direct and compel the NNPCL to invite appropriate anticorruption agencies to investigate the spending and whereabouts of the said N500 billion and to ensure the prompt recovery and remittance of the money to the Federation Account."

SERAP is also asking the court to "direct and compel the NNPCL to identify those suspected to be responsible for the alleged missing oil funds, surcharge them for the full amount involved, and hand them over to appropriate anticorruption agencies for investigation and prosecution."

In the suit, SERAP argues that: "The NNPCL has a responsibility to comply with the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], the Freedom of Information Act, and the country's international human rights and anticorruption obligations in the exercise of its statutory functions."

It argues that: "The missing oil revenues have further damaged the already precarious economy in the country and contributed to high levels of deficit spending by the government and the country's crippling debt crisis."

The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare, Ms Oluwakemi Oni, and Ms Valentina Adegoke, read in part: "Nigerians continue to bear the brunt of these missing public funds from the NNPCL meant for the economic development of the country.

"There is a legitimate public interest in providing the details sought. The NNPC has a legal responsibility to account for and explain the whereabouts of the missing oil money.

"The country's oil wealth ought to be used solely for the benefit of the Nigerian people, and for the sake of the present and future generations."

SERAP recalled that the “World Bank recently disclosed that out of the N1.1 trillion revenue from crude sales and other income in 2024, the NNPCL only remitted N600 billion, leaving a deficit of N500 billion unaccounted for".

"The Freedom of Information Act, Section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution, article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantee to everyone the right to information on the whereabouts of the missing N500 billion of oil revenue," it added.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.