Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has urged President Bola Tinubu to order investigation into more than N94.4bn in public funds reportedly diverted, unremitted, unaccounted for or irregularly spent by Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund, MDGIF and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC.
Organisation also urged President to ensure recovery and remittance of affected funds to Treasury and prosecution of anyone found culpable.
Demands were contained in letter dated October 3, 2026, signed by Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare and addressed to President.
According to SERAP, allegations appear in Auditor-General of the Federation’s 2024 (Volume 2) Annual Report, published August 7, 2026, covering January to December 2023 and ending December 31, 2024.
SERAP urged President to “direct appropriate anti-corruption agencies to promptly investigate over N94.4 billion in public funds reportedly diverted, unremitted, unaccounted for or irregularly spent, and ensure prosecution of anyone responsible where sufficient admissible evidence is established, as well as recovery and remittance of all affected public funds.”
It also urged him to direct MDGIF to submit and publish its audited financial statements for 2022, 2023 and 2024 and ensure they are promptly forwarded to Public Accounts Committees of National Assembly, as recommended by Auditor-General.
Organisation said findings raised questions about management of petroleum revenues and gas-flaring penalties and gave government seven days to act, threatening legal action if requests were not addressed.
Breakdown of alleged infractions cited by SERAP includes:
MDGIF failure to remit N26.54bn revenue from sale of petroleum products between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024; failure to remit and report N12.48bn gas-flaring penalties for 2023; engagement and payment of N3.51bn to consultant to recover gas-flaring penalties without President’s approval and without due process.
NUPRC alleged failure to remit N38.61bn gas-flaring penalties collected and due to MDGIF; MDGIF failure to collect and account for N12.94bn revenue from 2024 sales of natural gas.
Other alleged irregularities include N261.85m spent to engage Transaction Advisors without evidence of job execution and N65.8m spent on Transaction Advisors in August 2024 without due process.
SERAP said failure to properly account for petroleum-product revenues, natural-gas sales and gas-flaring penalties undermines public confidence and creates risk that funds intended for lawful public purposes, including environmental remediation, may have been lost or misapplied.
It added that Auditor-General expressed concern that failure to remit gas-flaring penalties creates risks of shortage of funds for environmental remediation and potential civil crisis arising from non-remediation of hazards.
Organisation also criticised failure to publish audited financial statements for MDGIF for three consecutive years, saying it undermines legislative oversight.
It cited constitutional provisions and anti-corruption treaties, including UN Convention against Corruption and African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, as basis for demands and urged MDGIF and NUPRC to publish schedule showing amounts due, collected, remitted and recovered, dates of transactions and accounts involved.
