The Senate Public Accounts Committee has given Seplat Energy and three other oil companies 48 hours to appear before it and respond to queries raised in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 audit reports of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
The other companies affected are Network E&P Nigeria Limited, All Grace Energy Limited and Aradel Energy Limited.
The committee, chaired by Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, issued the ultimatum on Tuesday following the failure of the companies to honour its invitations.
The lawmakers warned that failure to appear within the stipulated period could trigger the exercise of the Senate’s constitutional powers.
Senator Abdul Ningi, representing Bauchi Central, expressed particular concern over a letter from Network E&P Nigeria Limited stating that the company was accountable to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
Ningi said such a position could not exempt the company from responding to inquiries by the National Assembly.
“The Senate and by extension, the National Assembly, is the custodian of Nigeria law that has power to invite anybody or agency for explanations on issues raised against them,” he said, citing Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution.
Senator Shehu Kaka Lawan, representing Borno Central, supported the call for sanctions, noting that Network E&P had failed to honour the committee’s invitation on two occasions.
“Having failed to honour invitation of this committee two consecutive times, the Managing Director of Network E&P Nigeria Limited should appear before us unfailingly on Thursday this week or risk full invocation of legislative powers against him,” Lawan said.
The committee issued similar directives to the managing directors of All Grace Energy, Aradel Energy and Seplat Energy.
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Meanwhile, Dubri Oil Company Limited appeared before the committee to defend $3.025 million in alleged royalty and gas flare liabilities contained in the NEITI audit report.
According to the report, based on submissions from NUPRC in 2025, Dubri was said to owe $2.378 million in gas flare liabilities and $646,605.55 in oil production royalties.
However, the company’s representative, Soyode Olusoji Clement, disputed the figures, explaining that the liabilities arose from a reconciliation dispute with NUPRC.
He told the committee that the reconciliation had subsequently been concluded and that Dubri no longer had any outstanding debt.
The company submitted documents in support of its position, which the committee said it would scrutinise before determining whether to clear the company of the outstanding queries.
