Chief Financial Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Dapo Segun, has explained why the firm failed to honour the Senate’s invitation over the ₦210 trillion missing funds in its audited financial statement from 2017 to 2023.

According to Segun, the management of the state-owned oil firm was in a managerial retreat on Thursday.

The CFO’s explanation was contained in a letter read by the Chairman of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, Aliyu Wadada, on Thursday.

In the letter dated June 25, Segun pleaded for a two-month extension to prepare necessary documents and responses.

“Having carefully reviewed your request, we hereby request your kind consideration to reschedule the engagement for a period of two months from now to enable us to collate the requested information and documentation,” the statement partly reads.

Naijaonpoint reports that no officials or external auditors from NNPCL showed up despite summons by the Red Chamber.

Consequently, the committee issued a 10-day ultimatum, demanding that NNPCL top executives appear before the panel by July 10 or face constitutional sanctions.

The lawmakers further rejected Segun’s request for a two-month extension.

Wadada said it was unacceptable for a company like NNPCL to request two months to respond to questions from its own audited statements.

“For an institution like NNPCL to ask for two months to respond to questions from its own audited records is unacceptable,” Wadada stated.