The Nigerian Police Force Has Alleged Withdrawal of $3.2 billion Cash in Brass Gas Project

A Brass/Liquefied Natural Gas account domiciled in one of the old generation banks has been depleted to $469.4m, The Punch reports.
According to the report, the police had frozen the balance through a court order while investigations continued into why the money was not remitted to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
IGP Idris Ibrahim
The probe of the alleged fraud is being handled by the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the NPF headed by Ali Ahmodu, a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG).
The report further stated that the balance in the account was not remitted to the TSA in violation of an order by the federal government, directing all government agencies to close their deposit accounts in commercial banks and remit same to the CBN.
The SIP was established by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to investigate pending high-profile cases in the country.
A highly-placed source in the police quoted in the report said the SIP had interrogated  the bank officials and also some CBN officials over the isue.
The source also said the CBN was found wanting by the panel for keeping sealed lips over the violation by the bank.
“It is a US dollar account domiciled in the bank and it was discovered to have a total credit remittance of $3.7bn out of which $3.2bn was withdrawn between August 1, 2008, and August 29, 2016.
“The current balance of $469,427,562.85 has been frozen on the order of the court. Officials of the bank and the CBN have been invited to explain why the balance sum was not transferred to the TSA account and why the apex bank kept sealed lips on such action for over one year. We are also investigating the withdrawal,” the source said.
Efforts to reach the spokespersons of the bank and the CBN were not successful at the time of this report.
Meanwhile, the general manager, external relations, Brass LNG Limited, Mr Gabriel Obando, however, denied the report
Responding through an SMS, Obando said: “Please, be informed that the claim in this story (allegation) is totally false; and Brass LNG cannot comment further on a story that is untrue in all respects.”
In a related development, it has been revealed that Nigeria reportedly spent an estimated $35 billion on fuel subsidy from 2010 to 2014.
This was disclosed by a former acting group executive director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr Tim Okon.