Abuja —The Federal Government says it has recovered N29 billion out of the N232 billion oil subsidy scam.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala dropped the hint in Abuja, yesterday.
Okonjo-Iweala spoke at the ongoing Nigerian Economic Conference.
She said the amount was recovered from some marketers who allegedly
defrauded the Federal Government in the oil subsidy payment scheme.
The minister maintained that the recovery exercise was part of
government determination to fight corrupt practices in the oil and gas
sector.
“Now of the N232bn that has been put forward as fraudulent claims, we are right now able to hold N29 billion of that.
“So instead of paying them, we are recovering what they owe us.
So, my single hope is that out of this, we have recovered virtually
that amount of about N29 billion and we are looking forward to
recovering the balance of the total.
“Some of these people are being chased and prosecuted and the EFCC and ICPC are still investigating this.”
The minister said that about 50 marketers were being investigated over the subsidy scam.
She attributed the slow pace of payment of the subsidy claims to the
ongoing verification and thorough scrutiny of such claims by relevant
agencies.
Okonjo-Iweala reiterated that only genuine claims of oil marketers would be entertained.
“We have never stopped paying because all these issues about queues
and so on, of course sometimes the marketers have said unless you pay
us, we are not going to bring in oil.
“But we have not yielded to any of that kind of stress or even
blackmail, we have continued to do our work and we will continue to pay
those who are clean,” she said.
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