The House of Representatives has given the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) seven days to explain audit queries involving more than ₦400 billion in funds connected to the Ogoni cleanup.
The House Public Accounts Committee issued the ultimatum after HYPREP failed to honour four previous invitations to explain issues raised in the 2021 and 2024 audit reports of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
At a public hearing on Monday, October 5, 2026, the committee’s chairman, Bamidele Salam, said the latest invitation was the final opportunity for HYPREP’s programme coordinator to appear before the lawmakers.
The committee directed HYPREP to appear by Monday, October 12, 2026, warning that failure to do so would lead the House to invoke its constitutional powers to compel the agency’s accounting officer to appear.
The PUNCH reported on October 6, 2026, that the committee also summoned the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund to answer questions on the management of funds for the cleanup.
Among the issues raised in the audit reports was HYPREP’s failure to submit its audited accounts to the Auditor-General’s office between 2017 and 2021.
The 2021 audit report also raised questions over alleged irregular contract awards and the failure to deduct statutory taxes amounting to $2.1 million.
Other queries included ₦986 million paid for consultancy services without evidence of execution, ₦315 million in irregular training payments and ₦7.2 billion spent on contracts described in the audit findings as poorly executed.
The auditors also queried ₦268 million paid without prepayment audit, ₦32 million in statutory taxes that were not deducted and ₦31.8 million paid to external solicitors without approval from the Attorney-General of the Federation.
The report further raised questions over ₦931 million in extra-budgetary expenditure, duplication of services through contracts worth ₦182 million and duplication of monitoring and evaluation functions valued at ₦507 million.
The 2024 audit report raised additional queries, including an unverified ₦1.5 billion compensation payment, ₦14 million in unretired cash advances, an irregular payment of ₦229.1 million and ₦260 million paid for a training programme without evidence of execution.
The committee also raised concerns over the alleged denial of access to project documents and records relating to ₦27.5 billion required for audit verification.
According to Tribune Online on October 5, 2026, the lawmakers will also seek explanations from HYPREP and the Ogoni Remediation Trust Fund over the management of the $1 billion reportedly contributed towards the Ogoni cleanup after Shell Petroleum Development Company withdrew from the fund.
The committee said Renaissance Energy Limited had claimed to have contributed more than $900 million to the fund.
The audit findings are subject to explanations from HYPREP and the other officials summoned by the committee and do not, on their own, establish financial wrongdoing.
