CNPP and CNCSOs Urge President Tinubu to Order Judicial Probe into NNPCL Following Explosive Revelations by GCEO, Hail Bayo Ojulari

 

In a powerful joint statement released on August 31, 2025, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) and the Coalition of National Civil Society Organisations (CNCSOs) have commended the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Bayo Ojulari, for his bold and unprecedented disclosures regarding the deep-rooted corruption and operational decay within Nigeria’s refinery system, particularly the Port Harcourt Refinery. 

The statement, signed by Comrade James Ezema, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of CNPP, and Alhaji Ali Abacha, National Secretary of CNCSOs, praised Ojulari’s courage in lifting the veil on years of mismanagement and deceit that have plagued the nation’s oil infrastructure.

During a meeting held in Abuja on August 29, 2025, with the leadership of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Mr. Ojulari revealed that NNPCL has been hemorrhaging between ₦300 million and ₦500 million monthly across its refineries. He singled out the Port Harcourt Refinery as a particularly egregious example, noting that despite injecting approximately 950,000 barrels into the facility, less than 40 percent of the input was being processed. The result, he said, was a stream of mid-grade, substandard petroleum products due to only half of the refinery being operational. 

Ojulari further clarified that the refinery’s design had long been misunderstood and deliberately misrepresented. Contrary to the prevailing narrative of “old” and “new” refineries operating independently, he explained that the systems were originally designed to function as an integrated unit. Years of willful neglect and strategic misinformation, he asserted, have rendered rehabilitation efforts exceedingly difficult.

The CNPP and CNCSOs described Ojulari’s revelations as a vindication of their long-standing warnings about the systemic sabotage of Nigeria’s refineries under the former NNPCL leadership led by Engr. Mele Kyari. They recalled their persistent advocacy against what they termed a deliberate effort to cripple domestic refining capacity in order to sustain fraudulent petroleum importation rackets. 

According to the coalition, their efforts to expose these schemes were met with media suppression, blackmail, and intimidation orchestrated by the previous NNPCL management, while ordinary Nigerians bore the brunt of fuel scarcity, inflated subsidy bills, and deepening economic hardship.

The statement also revisited CNPP’s earlier criticism of the so-called profits declared by the Kyari-led NNPCL, which they had labeled as absurd and unacceptable. These declarations, they argued, stood in stark contradiction to the massive subsidy claims submitted to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). The coalition insisted that these were not mere accounting discrepancies but deliberate acts of deception, now exposed by the forthrightness of the current GCEO.

In defending their relentless scrutiny of NNPCL, the CNPP and CNCSOs emphasized that Nigeria’s economic suffocation is directly tied to entrenched corruption within the company. They argued that the suffering endured by Nigerians is not coincidental but the inevitable consequence of years of unchecked malfeasance. Until the rot within NNPCL is thoroughly eradicated, they warned, the nation will remain shackled by hardship and unable to achieve genuine economic relief or meaningful diversification of its revenue sources.

The coalition asserted that the scale of corruption under Kyari’s leadership far exceeds the capacity of conventional anti-graft agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate. 

Consequently, they renewed their call for a comprehensive forensic investigation and an independent judicial inquiry into NNPCL’s operations between 2017 and 2023. They stressed that such a probe must be public, transparent, and focused on recovering every kobo of Nigeria’s stolen wealth.

In a direct appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the CNPP and CNCSOs urged immediate action to salvage the economy and alleviate the suffering of the masses. They demanded that the President order a judicial probe into NNPCL’s activities during the specified period, with the aim of exposing the manipulation, deceit, and economic sabotage that have crippled Nigeria’s oil sector. 

They further insisted that Engr. Mele Kyari be arrested and compelled to account for his stewardship, citing unresolved allegations including fraudulent subsidy claims, questionable crude oil swap deals, unaccounted proceeds from crude sales, and the deliberate incapacitation of Nigeria’s refineries. The coalition warned that failure to take such action would amount to an endorsement of impunity and a betrayal of the Nigerian people.

In conclusion, the CNPP and CNCSOs lauded Mr. Bayo Ojulari for his integrity and bravery in confronting the truth. They described his disclosures as a beacon of hope for accountability in Nigeria and called on President Tinubu to match this courage with decisive government action. They expressed hope that NNPCL could be transformed from a bastion of corruption into a genuine national asset that serves the interests of all Nigerians.