…Former Oil Chief Faces Questions Over Frozen Accounts, Audit Report and Failed Refineries Revamp
By Franklin Adole
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday questioned former Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, in connection with an ongoing probe into alleged multibillion-naira fraud in the oil giant.
A senior EFCC source, who asked not to be named, confirmed that Kyari was invited and was in custody for interrogation. “Yes, he’s in our office. He will be ushered into where he will face interrogation by the crack detectives of the commission,” the official said.
Kyari’s grilling follows last week’s order by the Federal High Court in Abuja temporarily freezing four Jaiz Bank accounts linked to him. The order was granted by Justice Emeka Nwite after EFCC counsel, Ogechi Ujam, filed an ex parte motion.
The investigation has been fueled by concerns raised by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Senator Aliyu Wadada, over “mind-boggling” discrepancies running into trillions of naira in NNPCL’s audited financial statements from 2017 to 2023. The committee had issued 11 queries to the company’s finance team with a one-week deadline to respond.
Kyari, who was removed from the NNPCL board late last year following President Bola Tinubu’s restructuring of the company’s leadership, had earlier been placed on the EFCC’s watch list over alleged irregularities in the $7.2 billion refineries’ turnaround maintenance.
The dragnet had earlier caught former NNPCL Chief Finance Officer, Umar Ajiya, who was invited by the commission. Ajiya publicly denied being arrested, insisting he honored the invitation voluntarily. But EFCC officials dismissed his denial as “mere semantics.”
Investigators are probing Kyari, Ajiya, and others’ role during the controversial rehabilitations of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries. The latest revamps, financed through an AfreximBank-backed structure and executed by Italian contractor Tecnimont S.p.A. in partnership with NNPCL, were touted as milestones, but both refineries have since shut down shortly after reopening.
A former senior EFCC official had earlier told this newspaper that the investigation is expected to focus on whether the contracts complied with procurement laws, whether payments were tied to verifiable milestones, and whether funds were siphoned through fronts, shell companies, or foreign accounts.
“They are definitely going to ask hard questions about the integrity of the project—from the award of contracts and disbursement of funds to the quality of work delivered and the sudden shutdown of the refinery shortly after it was declared operational,” the ex-official said. He added that Interpol could be brought in to trace international fund flows and possible kickbacks.
Among the red flags under review are over-invoicing, unauthorized disbursements, conflicts of interest, use of ghost contractors, duplicate payments, and the role of NNPCL’s internal audit and the Bureau of Public Procurement in oversight. “The Commission is determined to get to the bottom of this matter, no matter how high it goes,” an EFCC source had said.