Femi Falana
Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has given the Senate 14 days to initiate measures to recover $123.17 billion and N66.4 billion allegedly owed to the Federation by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, international oil companies and indigenous oil firms.
In a letter dated October 28, 2026, addressed to Senate President Godswill Akpabio and copied to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, Falana said the outstanding funds represent unpaid royalties, taxes, dividends, proceeds from stolen crude oil and failed refinery rehabilitation contracts.
The lawyer, through his firm, Falana and Falana’s Chambers, said the claims were established by court judgments and reports from federal government agencies. He warned that failure by the National Assembly to initiate recovery measures within 14 days would compel his firm to approach the Federal High Court to enforce the Senate President’s constitutional and official responsibilities.
According to the letter, the first component is $62 billion in royalties allegedly not collected from international oil companies over 18 years. Falana traced the matter to the non-implementation of Section 16 of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, which provided for an upward review of royalties when crude oil prices exceeded $20 per barrel.
Related Posts:
He said the Supreme Court, in a consent judgment delivered on October 20, 2018, ordered the Federal Government to recover the outstanding royalties and pay the oil-producing states their 13 per cent derivation entitlement. A committee constituted by the Attorney-General of the Federation subsequently established that the amount owed was $62 billion.
Falana also cited Federal High Court judgments in favour of Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa States over their respective claims from the outstanding royalties. He said the Federal Government had yet to comply with the judgments.
The second component is $29 billion in proceeds from stolen crude oil. Falana said investigations by lawyers engaged by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, revealed that about 60.2 million barrels of Nigerian crude oil, valued at $12.7 billion, were discharged at the Philadelphia Port in the United States between 2011 and 2014.
He added that a House of Representatives ad hoc committee, established in 2016, also found that $17 billion worth of crude oil and liquefied natural gas had been exported from Nigeria without proper records. Falana urged the Senate to obtain the committee’s report and direct the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to recover the funds from the companies involved.
The third component is $23.1 billion in Nigeria LNG dividends allegedly withheld by NNPC Limited. Falana explained that the Federal Government owns 49 per cent of Nigeria LNG through NNPC, and that the company had paid more than $47 billion in dividends to its shareholders over the past 26 years. He alleged that NNPC failed to remit the government’s share to the Federation Account, despite resolutions by both chambers of the National Assembly.
He also identified $6.071 billion and N66.4 billion in outstanding payments owed by oil and gas companies, citing the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s 2022/2023 Independent Oil and Gas Industry Report. The report, presented in September 2024, disclosed the outstanding collectible revenues as of June that year.
The final component is $2.9 billion spent on the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries. Falana said the Federal Executive Council approved contracts worth $1.5 billion for the Port Harcourt refineries in April 2021 and another $1.48 billion for the Warri and Kaduna refineries in August of the same year.
He questioned the outcome of the rehabilitation projects, noting that NNPC announced in December 2024 that the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries had been substantially completed, while the Kaduna refinery was almost completed. However, the Warri refinery later suspended operations in January 2025, while the Port Harcourt refineries shut down for planned maintenance in May 2025.
Falana argued that the foreign contractors had breached the terms of their agreements and urged the EFCC to recover the $2.9 billion contract sum to enable the Federal Government to award the projects to other contractors.
He maintained that recovering the outstanding funds would reduce the Federal Government’s dependence on external borrowing and improve the country’s financial position. Falana also defended his firm’s involvement in the matter, recalling its role in drafting the amendment to the Deep Offshore and Production Sharing Contracts Act, which was later passed by the National Assembly.
