An economist, Henry Boyo, on Thursday faulted CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi’s letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, making claims of irregularities in the activities of the NNPC and particularly blowing the whistle on the missing $49.8 billion.

“If you suspect that either the Bureau De Change, or oil marketers, or oil lifters have domiciliary accounts used for all sorts of things (fraudulent activities), you make a petition to the police. You don’t seek the permission of Mr. President,” Boyo said.

Speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, Mr Boyo said that if the NNPC failed to remit $49.8 billion, being proceeds from crude sales between January 2012 and July 2013 to the Federation Account, the right thing for the CBN governor to have done was to send a petition to the police and not to the president.

“Sanusi probably has not run a business himself and his expectation is that every farthing that is garnered from sale of crude oil should automatically be transferred into the federation account.”

“What we get in the federation account is supposed to be a dividend. When you have a company, the total sales value of the things you sell don’t become dividends to the investors who own the company.

“Out of the sales revenue you have to pay taxes, staff remuneration and also meet other obligations.

“You cannot expect that a total of 49.8 billion dollars will automatically be transferred because total sales revenue cannot become dividends,” he said.

Mr Boyo said he was impressed at NNPC’s prompt response to the allegation which had elicited widespread outrage and cautioned all parties involved to calm down until proper investigations are carried out.

According to him, NNPC should not be judged until proper investigations have been carried out and the agency found guilty.

“As far as this issue is concerned, we should give the NNPC a chance to come out and defend themselves properly before we start hammering them with a sledge hammer.

“One would wonder why it took so long for these observations to be put on the table especially since he claims this has been happening for years,” he stressed.

Mr Boyo said most government departments and agencies were equally guilty of all sorts of malpractices and advised that issues concerning the financial credibility of the NNPC should be directed at the Accountant General, the Auditor General, revenue mobilization committee and the FAAC for not discovering the problems.