By Habeeb Ibrahim
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Umar Isa, a former Chief Financial Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), over an alleged $7.2 billion fraud linked to the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s refineries.
According to EFCC sources, Isa is being investigated for the disbursement of funds meant for the turnaround maintenance of the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries. The total amount under investigation is $2,956,872,622.36.
Breakdown of the funds shows that $1.56 billion was allocated to the Port Harcourt refinery, $740 million to Kaduna, and $656 million to Warri. Investigators believe a significant portion of these funds may have been mismanaged or diverted.
Other officials reportedly under investigation include Tunde Bakare, Managing Director of Warri Refinery; Ahmed Adamu Dikko, former MD of Port Harcourt Refinery; and Ibrahim Monday Onoja, also a former MD of the Port Harcourt facility.
The EFCC said the affected officials are being probed for abuse of office, corruption, diversion of public funds, and receiving kickbacks from contractors.
In a related development, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) disclosed that it recovered over N20 billion and several properties from corrupt individuals in 2024 alone.
ICPC Chairman, Musa Aliyu, who made this known in Ilorin at a conference of Attorneys General from Nigeria’s North Central states, stressed that preventing corruption is more effective and cost-efficient than prosecuting it after the damage is done.
He also revealed that efforts are ongoing to ensure that looted assets recovered from abroad are not re-looted once returned to Nigeria.
Similarly, the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Abdullahi Bello, described corruption as a major obstacle to Nigeria’s development. He said the bureau is introducing an online asset declaration system to improve transparency among public officials.
