As the new management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) takes steps to clean up the oil industry, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has launched an investigation into alleged abuse of office and misappropriation of funds by former top officials, including ex-chief executives Mele Kyari and Abubakar Yar’Adua.
A letter dated April 28 requests certified records of salaries and allowances for 14 current and former staff members. The investigation targets figures like former Group CEO Kyari and other top ex-officials including ex-Managing Director of Port Harcourt Refining Company Ibrahim Onoja, and former Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company head Mustafa Sugungun.
The EFCC has gone a step further and arrested the former managing directors and senior officials of Nigeria’s three major state-owned refineries: Port Harcourt Refining Company, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, and Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company. They are accused of mismanaging $2.96 billion allocated for refinery rehabilitation projects.
In April 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved a sweeping reconstitution of the NNPCL board, removing the chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure, the group chief executive officer, Kyari, and all other board members appointed with Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023.
A new 11-man board was reconstituted with Ahmadu Musa Kida as non-executive chairman and Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO. Six members of the board appointed as non-executive directors to represent the country’s geopolitical zones include Bello Rabiu, North West; Yusuf Usman, North East; and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas( NLNG), North Central; Austin Avuru, South-South; David Ige, South West; and Henry Obih, South East.
Other members of the board are the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, and a representative of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
President Tinubu, emphasized that the board’s restructuring is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency, restoring investor confidence, boosting local content, driving economic growth, and advancing gas commercialization and diversification.
The Tinubu administration tasked the board and management of the oil company to raise oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027 and three million daily by 2030. Concurrently, the government wants gas production jacked to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030.
Furthermore, President Tinubu expects the new board to elevate NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels by 2027 and reach 500,000 by 2030.
