Protesters on Tuesday stormed the Office of Attorney General and Minister of Justice, AGF, to demand probe and prosecution of the immediate past Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Limited, Engr. Mele Kyari.

Operating under the aegis of Concerned Citizens Against Corruption, the group urged the Justice Minister to investigate activities of Kyari in the past five years in the agency which he headed.
Convener of the group, Kabir Matazu said Kyari and the entire Board members were removed from office in a single swoop by President Bola Tinubu due to brazen corruption and expressed disappointment that the former NNPCL’s management staff have not been probed.

The group pointed out that the rehabilitation and recommissioning of Nigeria’s refineries were fraudulently done where billion of dollars went down the drain, noting that if investigation is carried out, they were sure of ‘can of worms opening’.

The group expressed disappointment that the NNPCL was indebted to Matrix Energy to the tune of over $2 billion, in exchange for daily crude oil production allocation to defray the debt.

“It is on record that the removal of the erstwhile leadership of the NNPCL was widely applauded by Nigerians, especially groups like ours that have been at the forefront of demanding accountability and transparency in the management of institutions,” Matazu said.

“It is also notable that Kyari’s leadership of the NNPCL was plagued by numerous allegations of corruption due to a lack of transparency. Nigerians are disillusioned that the President has only stopped at removing the former leadership without initiating steps to investigate Kyari and his team’s management of the organisation. A key issue is the alleged fraud surrounding the rehabilitation and re-commissioning of government-owned refineries. The figures and facts simply do not add up.

“In addition to the billions of dollars claimed to have been spent on refinery repairs, Kyari’s administration also alleged that Matrix Energy Limited invested $400 million in rehabilitating the Port Harcourt Refinery, even though the Federal Executive Council approved $1.5 billion for the same facility.

“More perplexingly, the NNPCL is now reportedly indebted to Matrix Energy by over $2 billion. This debt is being serviced through daily crude oil allocations to Matrix Energy, for which no payments are being made.

“This situation raises urgent questions: Why and how is the Federal Government, through the NNPCL, indebted to Matrix Energy for $2 billion? Why is the debt being serviced with daily crude oil supplies? Who were the parties involved in negotiating this deal? Why are Nigerians being kept in the dark about these agreements.”

The group also emphasised that addressing these issues would enable the Federal Government to account for how public resources were used under Kyari’s leadership.

“An investigation into these transactions would help the government identify funds that need to be recovered and from whom, especially considering Nigeria’s dire economic condition.

“Furthermore, such an investigation would ensure that the current leadership is held accountable and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past”, Matazu said.

The group urged the AGF to immediately review all agreements entered into by the NNPCL during Kyari’s administration.

“This investigation should uncover the Federal Government’s financial losses and recommend actionable steps to recover these funds. We demand an immediate judicial review,” Matazu stated.

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has allayed fears that there may not be enough crude oil for local refining when Portharcourt, Kaduna, Warri, Dangote and BUA refineries start working.

Lokpobiri stated that the refineries and other Modular Refineries will not get enough crude oil for local refining, if there was no commensurate increase in crude oil production.

After fixing faulty refineries, the Minister asserted, it will be embarrassing for the lack of crude oil to feed them as well as private oil refineries that belong to Dangote and BUA.

The Minister expressed the fear publicly for the third time in the last four months at the 2024 sector retreat for the ministry, held yesterday in Abuja with the theme: “Building Synergy for Enhanced Development in the Oil and Gas Sector” according to Daily Trust.

The retreat was said to have been convened to discuss how to achieve the targets and mandates set for the ministry by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the ministerial retreat held in November, 2023.

“The first target is to see how we can ramp up production, and then we can meet our target in terms of increase in revenue, meet our obligation in the mid-stream and upstream.

“One of the challenges I am afraid of is, if we finish fixing our refineries, we will be unable to get feed stocks. It will be very embarrassing that we finish Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Warri and Dangote and BUA and we don’t have feed stocks.”

Lokpobiri had first raised the issue in November, 2023, while responding to the questions asked by the State House correspondents at the end of the three-day retreat at the Presidential Villa.

Nigeria’s Dangote refinery and the largest in Africa, had in January planned to import crude from the United States, a report had said.

Traders with knowledge of the matter said Trafigura Group sold 2 million barrels of WTI Midland to Dangote refinery for end-February delivery, Bloomberg reports.