The House of Representatives has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to appear before its Public Accounts Committee and respond to audit queries involving over ₦400bn in the management of Ogoni cleanup funds.
The directive came after HYPREP failed to honour four previous invitations to explain issues raised in the 2021 and 2024 audit reports of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
At Monday’s public hearing attended by 27 lawmakers, Committee Chairman Bamidele Salam warned that failure to appear by October 12, 2026, would compel the House to invoke constitutional powers to enforce compliance.
“This is the final warning. We have invited HYPREP on four different occasions, and they have failed to appear before this committee,” Salam said.
The committee also summoned the Chairman of the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund’s Board of Trustees to clarify concerns over the management of contributions, including the reported $1bn fund for the cleanup.
Audit reports highlighted several irregularities, including:Non-submission of audited accounts between 2017 and 2021.
Alleged irregular contracts and payments, including ₦986m for consultancy without evidence of execution.
₦7.2bn for poorly executed projects and ₦268m without prepayment audit.Non-deduction of statutory taxes amounting to millions of naira.
Extra-budgetary expenditure of ₦931m and irregular payments for training and advertisements.Alleged denial of access to ₦27.5bn worth of project documents needed for audit verification.
The committee stressed its determination to ensure accountability in the use of public funds, particularly in the Ogoni cleanup project, which followed the UN Environment Programme’s assessment of widespread oil pollution in the region.
Salam emphasized that the officials must provide records and explanations within the stipulated period, adding that unresolved audit queries would not be tolerated.
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