Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested Umar Isa, a former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), over an alleged $7.2 billion fraud linked to the rehabilitation of the Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt refineries.
Also in EFCC custody is Jimoh Olasunkanmi, a former Managing Director of Warri Refinery.
As CFO, Isa was responsible for overseeing the release of funds for the turnaround maintenance of the three refineries. Isa, along with other key officials involved in the maintenance of the refineries and other major NNPCL projects, are under investigation for alleged abuse of office, corruption, diversion of funds, and receiving kickbacks from contractors.
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Other officials implicated include the Managing Director of Warri Refinery, Tunde Bakare; former Managing Directors of Port Harcourt Refinery, Ahmed Dikko and Ibrahim Onoja.
EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale was unavailable for comment.
Last week, the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Aliyu Wadada, raised concerns over discrepancies involving trillions of naira in the audited financial statements of NNPCL, describing the findings as both mind-boggling and alarming.
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The committee highlighted that these concerns arose directly from their analysis of NNPCL’s audited financial statements from 2017 to 2023. Consequently, the committee issued a list of 11 queries to the NNPCL finance team, giving them one week to provide responses.
