A crisis is brewing at the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Staff Cooperative Multipurpose Society, Lagos, following allegations of financial misappropriation against executives.

Some aggrieved members of the society have urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the alleged diversion of funds in the association and attempts to obstruct a forensic audit into the cooperative’s financial records.

The society, which comprises over 4,000 members drawn from NNPCL employees, is also caught up in leadership tussles as the members allege that the executives have refused to render financial accounts since 2022.

At the heart of the controversy is an alleged N806 million loss as captured in the cooperative’s 2022 financial report.

Members also accused the management of planning to pay N180 million to a contractor for a failed project without justification.

Addressing journalists on behalf of the aggrieved members yesterday in Abuja, Elder Ante Ante said the crisis has festered due to the refusal of the committee to convene a statutory Annual General Meeting (AGM) to address the audit findings and concerns raised by members.

He alleged that efforts to institute a forensic audit, reportedly proposed by the President of the Society, Adebusuyi, have been frustrated by other members of the management committee, who he accused of resisting accountability.

Rather than convene the statutory Annual General Meeting (AGM) to address concerns raised in the 2022 audit, Ante said the committee members have been caught up in power struggles.

He added that all efforts to institute an independent forensic audit, reportedly proposed by the society’s President, were allegedly blocked by committee members opposed to scrutiny.

Ante recalled that the society had faced a similar scandal between 2011 and 2015, when a former president was indicted and forced by the EFCC to refund misappropriated funds.

Ante observed that members insisted that only an independent audit firm can credibly assess the true state of the society’s finances, saying that such a firm should not be the one imposed by the Lagos State Ministry of Commerce, Cooperative, Trade and Investment, which the members accuse of partisanship and complicity in the ongoing crisis.