EFCC Grills Ex NNPC CEO Kyari Over Refinery Contracts

Former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, spent Wednesday at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) answering questions on refinery maintenance and contract deals.

Kyari, who led the NNPC from 2019 before becoming the first Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL in 2021, was invited by the commission and arrived for interrogation earlier in the day. Sources confirmed he spent several hours with investigators over turnaround maintenance projects for Nigeria’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna.

The anti-graft agency has been probing billions of naira and dollars released for refinery rehabilitation, much of which has failed to yield results as the facilities remain largely dormant. Officials said the interrogation of Kyari is linked to contract inflation, over-invoicing and questionable payments tied to years of failed maintenance projects.

In August, the EFCC obtained a court order freezing four bank accounts connected to Kyari, which investigators said held over ₦661 million suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.

The commission has already recovered more than ₦5 billion and $10 million from contractors and government officials implicated in fraudulent refinery maintenance schemes. Efforts are ongoing to trace an additional ₦10 billion and $13 million believed to have been siphoned through inflated contracts.

EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, has personally overseen the probe, expressing concern that despite huge allocations, none of the refineries operate at functional capacity. Former management teams of the refineries have also been questioned, and charges are being prepared against some NNPCL officials linked to the deals.

Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries have consumed billions of dollars in government rehabilitation funds over decades but continue to underperform, keeping the country reliant on fuel imports. The current investigation covers $1.55 billion allocated to Port Harcourt refinery, $740.6 million for Kaduna refinery, and $656.9 million for Warri refinery.

The grilling of Kyari marks one of the most high-profile stages of the ongoing investigation as pressure mounts for accountability over the nation’s long-troubled refineries.