Joseph Bakare/Hyacinth Chinweuba
The House of Representative are poised to investigate whether $17 billion of petroleum and fuel exports were stolen by companies and government agencies under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to fight corruption insisting he will recover “mind-boggling” sums of money stolen from the oil sector.
He has said public coffers were “virtually empty” when he took office last May.
A member of the House Johnson Agbonayinma filed a motion late on Thursday in which he said there was an “urgent need to investigate the over $17 billion stolen from undeclared crude oil and liquefied natural gas exports to global destinations”.
The house said a committee would be set up next week to investigate the allegations which involve “20 companies, two agencies of government, and the consultant appointed by the past administration”.
Agbonayinma said most of the oil and liquefied natural gas ended up in the United States, as well as China and Norway.
He also said around 58 million barrels of oil were missing.
Nigeria is in recession for the first time in over 20 years due to low oil prices and militant attacks on energy facilities in its Niger Delta region that cut crude production, which provides 70 percent of government revenues, by around a third.