Senate gives Seplat Energy, others 48-hour ultimatum
Adebayo Gbeja
Editor • Aug 12, 2026 • 3 min read
The Senate Public Accounts Committee has given Seplat Energy, Network E&P Nigeria Ltd., All Grace Energy Ltd., Aradel Energy and other affected oil companies 48 hours to appear before it over outstanding audit queries.
The committee issued the ultimatum after the companies failed to attend an investigative hearing held on Tuesday in Abuja to respond to queries contained in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 reports of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
Chairman of the committee, Sen. Abdul Ningi, described the companies’ failure to honour the invitations as disturbing and unacceptable.
Ningi also criticised a letter from one of the companies reportedly claiming that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) was its sole regulator.
He said such a position demonstrated a misunderstanding of the constitutional powers of the National Assembly to conduct oversight and demand explanations on matters of public interest.
“The Senate and, by extension, the National Assembly, is the custodian of Nigerian law and has power to invite anybody or agency,” Ningi said.
He cited Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, which empower the legislature to summon individuals, organisations and government agencies to provide information or explanations on public matters.
Another member of the committee, Sen. Shehu Kaka, urged lawmakers to invoke their constitutional powers if the affected companies continued to disregard the invitations.
Kaka said Network E&P Nigeria Ltd. and other defaulting firms had failed to honour the committee’s invitation on two occasions and must appear before it on Thursday.
“Having failed to honour invitation of this committee two consecutive times, the Managing Director of Network E&P Nigeria Ltd. and others must appear,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dubri Oil Company Ltd. appeared before the committee to respond to a reported $3.25 million royalty and gas flare debt.
The company’s representative, Mr Soyode Olusoji, attributed the reported debt to reconciliation issues between Dubri Oil and NUPRC.
He explained that the audit report was prepared while reconciliation discussions between the company and the regulator were still ongoing.
NEITI had, based on information supplied by NUPRC in 2025, reported that Dubri Oil owed $3.25 million.
The audit report identified $2.378 million as gas flare liabilities and $646,605.55 as debts associated with oil production activities.
Olusoji, however, told the committee that the reconciliation had been concluded and that Dubri Oil no longer had any outstanding debt.
He submitted relevant documents to the lawmakers and appealed to the committee to review them before taking a decision on the audit query.
The committee said it would examine the documents submitted by the company as part of its ongoing investigation into the NEITI audit findings.
