The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has announced that a forensic audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is currently ongoing.
Speaking at the Nigerian Investor Forum, held on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington DC, Edun confirmed the federal government’s commitment to transparency in the petroleum sector.
This development comes amid mounting pressure from civil society groups and legal advocates demanding the investigation and prosecution of the former NNPCL Group CEO, Mele Kyari. The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), through a representative, has assured Nigerians that Kyari will be investigated as demanded.
On Wednesday, a group of lawyers under the “Guardians of Democracy and Rule of Law” submitted a petition to the AGF’s office seeking Kyari’s arrest and prosecution over alleged corruption during his tenure. The petition, dated April 23, 2025, accused Kyari of running the corporation with an opaque management style and highlighted years of suspected financial irregularities.
Addressing the lawyers, Deputy Director of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Winifred Adekunle, said, “The AGF has assured that there will be an open investigation into the NNPCL’s financials over the last years.”
The call for accountability was also echoed by protesters from “Concerned Citizens Against Corruption,” who stormed the AGF’s office demanding thorough scrutiny of NNPCL’s transactions over the past five years.
In recent months, the federal government has shown signs of restructuring the petroleum corporation. In April, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu replaced Kyari with Bayo Ojulari as the new NNPCL Group CEO and appointed Ahmadu Musa Kida as non-executive chairman. Shortly after, an eight-member senior management team was also constituted.
In December 2024, auditors had probed a controversial N2.7 trillion subsidy refund claim made by NNPCL, while in January 2025, the Auditor-General’s report further indicted the corporation for financial infractions.
New GCEO Ojulari has since outlined his administration’s goal to attract $60 billion in sectoral investments by 2030.
