EFCC Interrogates Ex-NNPCL Boss Kyari Over Refinery Maintenance, Contracts
The immediate past Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, on Wednesday appeared before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Abuja for questioning over refinery turnaround maintenance and contract-related matters.
A senior EFCC official confirmed that Kyari honoured the commission’s invitation and had been with investigators for several hours. As of 8 p.m., he was still undergoing interrogation. EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale also confirmed his presence at the commission’s headquarters but gave no further details.
Kyari, who served as GMD of the NNPC from 2019 before becoming the first Chief Executive Officer of the restructured NNPCL in 2021, has faced mounting scrutiny over billions of dollars reportedly spent on the turnaround maintenance of Nigeria’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna.
In August, the EFCC secured a court order freezing four bank accounts linked to him in Jaiz Bank. Investigators alleged the accounts were used to warehouse more than N661 million, suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
The anti-graft agency disclosed that it has so far recovered over N5 billion and $10 million from contractors and officials indicted in fraudulent refinery maintenance deals. Efforts are ongoing to recover an additional N10 billion and $13 million.
According to the EFCC, its investigation has uncovered widespread irregularities, including contract inflation, over-invoicing, and questionable payments. Former management teams of the refineries have also been interrogated, and charges are being prepared against some NNPCL officials implicated in the contracts.
The probe covers $1.55 billion allocated for the Port Harcourt refinery, $740.6 million for Kaduna, and $656.9 million for Warri. Despite these allocations, the facilities remain largely non-functional, leaving the country dependent on imported petroleum products.
EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede is said to be personally supervising the investigation, which he has described as critical to uncovering why successive rehabilitation projects failed despite heavy government spending.
Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries, with a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, have been dormant for decades despite repeated turnaround maintenance exercises.
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