The House of Representatives has given the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) seven days to appear before its Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and respond to audit queries involving more than N400 billion contained in the 2021 and 2024 reports of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The ultimatum followed the adoption of a resolution at a public hearing of the committee on Monday, after HYPREP failed to honour four previous invitations to appear before the lawmakers.
Chairman of the committee, Rep. Bamidele Salam, described the latest invitation as a final warning, directing the agency to appear before the committee on or before Monday, October 12, 2026.
He warned that failure to comply would compel the House to invoke its constitutional powers to compel HYPREP’s accounting officer to appear before the committee.
The committee also summoned the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Trust Fund to provide explanations on the management of funds allocated to the Ogoni cleanup.
Among the issues raised in the audit reports is HYPREP’s failure to submit its audited accounts to the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation between 2017 and 2021.
The reports also queried alleged irregular contract awards, non-deduction of statutory taxes amounting to $2.1 million, as well as the payment of N986 million for consultancy services without evidence that the services were delivered.
Other audit queries include alleged irregular payment of N315 million for training, N7.2 billion for poorly executed contracts and N268 million without pre-payment audit.
The auditors further questioned the non-deduction of N32 million in statutory taxes and the engagement of external solicitors at a cost of N31.8 million without approval from the Attorney-General of the Federation.
The committee also raised questions over the recovery of crude oil from a remediation site without supporting documentation, the adoption of a progressive salary scale for contract staff and extra-budgetary expenditure amounting to N931 million.
Also under scrutiny are alleged duplication of services through contracts valued at N182 million and duplication of monitoring and evaluation functions worth N507 million.
The audit report further queried an alleged irregular payment of N43 million for advertisement without evidence of performance, as well as the continued stay in office of an officer after the expiration of the officer’s secondment.
The 2024 Audit Report presented to the committee raised additional concerns, including an unverified payment of N1.5 billion in compensation.
It also queried the non-retirement of N14 million in cash advances, an alleged irregular payment of N229.1 million and N260 million paid for a training programme without evidence of execution.
Lawmakers also expressed concern over the alleged denial of access to project documents and records relating to projects valued at N27.5 billion.
Salam said HYPREP and the Ogoni Trust Fund would also be expected to provide explanations on the management of the $1 billion reportedly committed to the Ogoni cleanup.
He said the issue had become more significant following the withdrawal of Shell Petroleum Development Company from the process and a claim by Renaissance Energy Ltd that it had contributed more than $900 million to the fund.
The Ogoni cleanup programme followed the environmental assessment and recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) after decades of hydrocarbon pollution in the region.
HYPREP was established to coordinate the Federal Government’s response to the environmental degradation, including environmental remediation, livelihood restoration, provision of potable water and public health interventions in affected Ogoni communities.
The project, launched in 2016, remains one of the Federal Government’s major environmental restoration initiatives. HYPREP said in June that 30 of the 65 sites identified by UNEP for remediation had been closed out, while work was continuing at other locations.
The lawmakers’ action forms part of the constitutional responsibility of the National Assembly to scrutinise public expenditure and follow up on issues raised by the Auditor-General of the Federation.
However, the committee’s audit queries do not by themselves establish wrongdoing, as HYPREP is expected to provide explanations, records and supporting documents to clarify the issues raised by the auditors.
Salam therefore directed the agency and the Ogoni Trust Fund to appear within the seven-day window, warning that failure to do so could trigger further legislative action to compel the appearance of HYPREP’s accounting officer.
