Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested the former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and other principal officers of the Corporation.
Amongst those picked up by the anti graft agency are Umar Isa, over an alleged $7.2 billion fraud linked with the rehabilitation of the Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt refineries and Jimoh Olasunkanmi, a former Managing Director of Warri Refinery.
Umar Isa, as CFO, was in charge of the release of funds for the turnaround maintenance of the three refineries.
He and all the key officials involved in the maintenance of the refineries and other NNPC key projects are being investigated for alleged abuse of office, corruption, diversion of funds and kickbacks from contractors.
Other officials involved are the Managing Director of the Warri Refinery, Tunde Bakare; a former Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refinery, Ahmed Dikko; and a former Managing Director of the Port Harcourt Refinery, Ibrahim Onoja.
This is coming on the heels of , the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Aliyu Wadada, raised alarm of discrepancies involving trillions of naira in the audited financial statements of the NNPCL, describing the revelations as mind-boggling and worrisome.
The committee underscored that the concerns stem directly from the analysis of NNPCL’s audited financial statements from 2017 to 2023. The committee immediately handed over a list of 11 queries to the NNPCL finance team and gave them one week to return with answers.
