Is President Tinubu saddened by events at the NNPCL?
Mele Kolo Kyari was appointed the 19th Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, July 8, 2019.
Mele Kolo Kyari’s journey within the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) spanned over three decades, starting as a Processing Geophysicist in 1991 and culminating in his appointment as Group Managing Director (GMD) in 2019. He later became the first Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPC Limited after its incorporation as Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, in 2021.
By July 8, 2020, the Premium Times, in a vigorous evaluation of the man’s one year in office, presented him as a man with great vision and how he was able to turn the State Nation owned entity around to the benefits of Nigerians.
The online media praised him succinctly, saying that “the reform-minded oil, and gas industry technocrat unfolded an agenda for NNPC’s rebirth. He called it the Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE), a five-step strategic roadmap for NNPC’s attainment of efficiency and global excellence”.
That was the candid opinion of the Paper about the man – Mele Kolo Kyari, then. But today, it is his historical journey of tenure, that is now at focus. So, what we shall be looking at, as from today, is the man’s balance sheet of services, after Six Years of sojourn in the NNPCL.
We should not forget that President Bola Tinubu had sacked Mele Kolo Kyari as the GMD of NNPCL on April 2, 2025, and dissolved the Board and appointed Bayo Ojulari as new GMD, with another Board constituted.
Just last week, the Media came alive with the story of how the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was reported to have “invited” some top officials of the NNPCL, for questioning on allegation of $3 billion fraud. Specifically mentioned as being held for questioning are the Managing Directors of Port Harcourt, Warri and the Kaduna refineries.
Though the “sacked” GMD was not reported as being detained by the EFCC as of the time of the report, a document dated April 28, 2025, and titled, ‘Investigation Activities: Request for Information’, indicated that the probe by EFCC included the immediate past Group Chief Executive Officer of the national oil firm, Mele Kyari and 13 others, because the document says: “The commission is investigating a case of abuse of office and misappropriation of funds in which the underlisted officials of your organisation featured,”
Abubakar Yar’Adua, Mele Kyari, Isiaka Abdulrazak Umar Ajiya, Dikko Ahmed, Ibrahim Onoja, Ademoye Jelili, Mustapha Sugungun, Kayode Adetokunbo, Efiok Akpan, Babatunde Bakare, Jimoh Olasunkanmi, Bello Kankaya and Desmond Inyama.
“In view of the above, you are kindly requested to furnish certified true copies of their emoluments and allowances, including that of those who have retired and no longer work with your organisation,” the anti-graft commission told the NNPCL boss.
Let us follow narration of the alleged crimes, according to EFCC, and as fully reported by the Punch Newspaper.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested the recently sacked managing directors and some top officials of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, and Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company.
The officials were arrested over alleged mismanagement of funds earmarked for the rehabilitation of the facilities. The total amount under investigation is $2,956,872,622.36.
Mele Kolo Kyari
Findings by Saturday PUNCH showed that the EFCC is probing the sum of $1,559,239,084.36 allocated to the Port Harcourt refinery, $740,669,600 released for the Kaduna refinery, and $656,963,938 approved for the Warri refinery.
The ex-Managing Director of Port Harcourt Refining Company Ltd is Mr Ibrahim Onoja, while Efifia Chu served as the ex-Managing Director of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company Ltd.
This came as impeccable top management sources at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited revealed that N80bn was found in the account of one of the sacked MDs.
Also, operators and experts in the sector lambasted NNPCL for deceiving Nigerians regarding the operations of the refineries, particularly the Port Harcourt and Warri plants, following the poor output from the facilities since their resumption of operations in November and December 2024.
Dashed hope
NNPCL manages the three refineries for Nigerians. The plants had remained dormant for decades, but the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries resumed operations in November and December 2024, respectively.
However, less than one month after the Warri refinery resumed operations, the plant was again shut down due to safety concerns.
The Port Harcourt refinery, on the other hand, has been operating below 40 per cent of its capacity since its widely celebrated revamp.
It has been earlier reported that the new NNPCL management fired the managing directors of the three refineries under its purview.
Some other senior officials of the national oil firm were also asked to leave; among them was Bala Wunti, a former chief of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, a subsidiary of the NNPCL. The new management also asked many officials with one year to their various retirement dates to leave.
Arrest of suspects
An unnamed EFCC official admitted that “We are investigating the money that was released for the rehabilitation of all three refineries—money disbursed in recent times. All the principal officers within that time frame are being invited. Some have been arrested already, and we are still on the lookout for others. Nigerians are interested in seeing our refineries work. We are asking: where is the money, and what has happened to the refineries?”.
The source added that the investigation was far-reaching, covering all key actors involved in the management of the refineries during the period in question.
However, a source confided that one of the sacked MDs had been with the EFCC for about a week, saying, “Large amounts have been discovered in his accounts. About N80bn has so far been discovered in his various accounts. The way things are going, it may be bigger than Emefielegate”.
Lies uncovered
Although this is not the first time the company has feigned the effectiveness of its operations, citizens have noted that the lack of transparency not only deepens public distrust but also fuels speculation about the company’s true intentions and the actual state of Nigeria’s oil infrastructure.
On Tuesday, The PUNCH exclusively reported that the NNPCL came under fire as the $897m Warri refinery revamp flopped.
The report also stated that the $1.5bn newly repaired Port Harcourt refinery had been struggling at under 37.87 per cent production capacity.
This was after the revelation that the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company had remained shut since January 25, 2025, due to safety issues in its Crude Distillation Unit Main Heater.
An April 2025 document on the Midstream and Downstream sector obtained from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority revealed that the refinery, which consumed $897.6m in maintenance costs, failed to produce Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) and was shut down barely a month after former NNPCL boss, Kyari, declared it operational.
An investigation by Saturday PUNCH on January 5, 2025, revealed that skeletal activities were ongoing at the WRPC, compared with the heyday of the refinery when the company was working at full capacity. But NNPCL debunked this, stressing that production was ongoing.
The PUNCH reports that the 125,000 barrels per day capacity Warri refinery, which had been moribund for decades due to technical issues, was brought back to life by the national oil company on December 30, 2024.
The Warri refinery
Situated in Ekpan, Uwvie, and Ubeji areas of Warri, the petrochemical plant has an annual production capacity of 13,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene and 18,000 metric tonnes of carbon black.
Commissioned in 1978, the WRPC is operated by the NNPC and was established to cater to the markets in Nigeria’s southern and southwestern regions.
The PUNCH reported that President Bola Tinubu commended the NNPCL for completing the refurbishment of the 125,000-bpd capacity Warri refinery, which reportedly kicked off operations at 60 per cent capacity.
It is focused on producing and storing critical products, including Straight Run Kerosene, Automotive Gas Oil (diesel), and heavy and light Naphtha.
A month earlier, the national oil company, at a much-publicised event, announced the revitalisation of the 60,000 barrels per day old Port Harcourt refinery.
The $1.5bn rehabilitation project, funded through a loan facility backed by international financial institutions, was projected to restore the state-owned facility to full operational status after years of dormancy and seven postponements, with the latest failure occurring in September 2024, from its earlier target of December 2023.
But a few days after the fanfare, a visit by Saturday PUNCH to the refinery revealed that there was no activity on site, as some workers met by our correspondent claimed that the refinery was undergoing calibration. This was also denied by the company.
The NNPCL spokesperson, Soneye, had said that the refinery recommissioned on November 26, 2024, was operating at 70 per cent of its installed capacity, with plans to increase output to 90 per cent in subsequent months.
At its recommissioning, the state-owned firm stated that the Port Harcourt refinery would produce daily outputs of 1.4 million litres of Straight-Run Gasoline blended into Premium Motor Spirit, 900,000 litres of Kerosene, 1.5 million litres of Automotive Gas Oil, 2.1 million litres of Low Pour Fuel Oil, and additional volumes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
The new NMDPRA document highlighting the refinery’s true state, however, linked the shutdown of WRPC to critical faults in the refinery’s Crude Distillation Unit Main Heater.
“The Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company was shut down on 25th Jan. 2025 due to safety concerns over the CDU Main Heater,” the document stated.
The PHRC facility, on its part, did not exceed 42.23 per cent of its operational capacity within the six months.
At another visit on Friday to the Warri refinery by Saturday PUNCH, some members of staff who were seen around the premises declined to comment on the situation at the refinery.
Non-staff members were denied access to the complex, as security operatives at the main gate insisted, they were working on instructions.
Marketers contacted also lamented they had been unable to lift petroleum products at the refinery.
Our correspondent did not see fuel-laden trucks either coming in or going out of the refinery during the visit.
The Guru continues this story tomorrow, revealing the aspect of how the Federal Government, even under President Bola Tinubu, spent millions of Naira, in falsified media congratulatory messages to NNPCL for the feat it achieved in the turnaround of the refineries.
He shall also touch briefly on the diabolical role, of being a false witness, played by the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria [PETROAN], in this sad story of taking Nigerians into a journey of complete falsified energy security.
Godwin Etakibuebu; a Veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
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