EXCLUSIVE: Crisis Rocks NNPC as CEO, Chief Financial Officer Secretly Pay Themselves Billions of Naira

A fresh crisis is brewing in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited over the alleged payment of gratuity running into billions of Naira to the Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari and the Chief Financial Officer, Umar Ajiya, SaharaReporters has learnt.

Gratuity is a sum of money paid to an employee at the end of a period of employment.

Kyari was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as the new Group Managing Director (GMD), now known as the Group CEO of NNPC in 2019. He replaced Maikanti Baru.

Multiple sources told SaharaReporters that Kyari and the Chief Financial Officer of the corporation had paid themselves billions of naira as gratuity despite still in service.

Some other top officials of the NNPC were also said to have been paid.

According to one of the sources, the top NNPC officials made the move over fear of being retired compulsorily by the incoming government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Sequel to his victory in the February 25 presidential poll, Tinubu would be sworn in as president on May 29, 2023, to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari who is finishing his second term in office.

“Isn’t this corruption? Our Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari and the Chief Financial Officer, Umar Ajiya paid themselves gratuity running into billions of naira while still in active service which is against the public service rules,” the source said.

“With the petroleum industry act that was passed by the National Assembly, NNPC transited into a limited liability company with share capital for more transparency and accountability and to be a profit driven organization. But unfortunately under Kyari and Ajiya, the reverse is the case.

“The fear that they may be sacked or asked to go on retirement suddenly made these two individuals to pay themselves humongous gratuity while still in active service.

“They are both running NNPC as their personal company because nobody is checkmating the both of them.”

The source added further that the PIA act gives the Group CEO and CFO enormous powers without recourse to the President since there is a constituted board of NNPC.

However, the board is said not have the power to oversight NNPC administrative duties.

“The PIA act has created a lacuna by giving the group CEO and CFO enormous powers to run the organisation without recourse to the President. Same Umar Ajiya retired from NLNG before joining NNPC, guess what? He was paid gratuity in NLNG and now he has paid himself another gratuity which is against the public service law while still in active service with the corporation,” he said.

The source added that most staff of NNPC were not happy the way the company was being managed by Kyari.

“He and Umar Ajiya they are running the company like their personal fiefdom; our morale is down at the moment. We are calling on President Buhari to constitute a committee investigate the massive corruption being perpetuated by Kyari and Ajiya. We are ready to provide documents to the committee to prove the massive corruption on the bogus fuel subsidy claims where they collect kickbacks, the aviation fuel racketeering which is being handled by the CFO and the crude oil for product swap scam (DSDP/CODPA) Scam,” the source added.

Calls put across by SaharaReporters to Garba Deen Muhammad, Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC were not picked nor returned.

This is coming amid plan by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Oil Theft to investigate the alleged loss of over $2.4 billion in revenue from the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil export.

The committee had summoned the Finance minister Zainab Ahmed; and the Secretary General of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Accountant General of the Federation, Sylva Okolieaboh; and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), among others.

It was reported in December 2022 2022 that Nigeria’s lower legislative chamber constituted an ad hoc committee to investigate a whistle-blower’s allegation of the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude in China in 2015 and the insurance status of the cargo.

The committee was also tasked to investigate all crude oil exports and sales by Nigeria from 2014 to date, with regards to quantity, insurance, revenue generated, remittances into the federation account or other accounts as well as utilisation of the revenue for the period under review.

In addition, the panel will investigate all proceeds recovered through the Whistle-Blowers Policy of the Muhammadu Buhari government and the level of compliance with the policy.

The committee is to report back within four weeks for further legislative action.

These resolutions followed the unanimous adoption of a motion moved by a member of the House, Ibrahim Isiaka, titled, “Alleged Loss of over $2.4 Billion in Revenue from Illegal Sale of 48 Million Barrels of Crude Oil Export in 2015, Including Crude Oil Exports from 2014 till Date.”

A report by the Nigerian Senate recently revealed that the NNPC failed to account for the delivery of crude oil amounting to N102 billion to Warri and Kaduna refineries.

Last Wednesday, SaharaReporters reported that the Senate considered and adopted the report of its Committee on Public Accounts which probed the spending of government agencies using the 2016 audit report.
The report said in 2016, the NNPC delivered crude oil to Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) and Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company without details of what was delivered to the two firms.

The report, presented by Senator Matthew Urhoghide, said: “From the review and examination of domestic crude oil lifting sales profile presented for audit verification, it was noted that several deliveries were stated to be jointly lifted by or delivered to WRPC and Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company without necessary details or breakdown of what was delivered to respective companies.”

It said from the examination carried out, a total oil sales value of $376, 655,589 (N102.6bn) was stated to have been lifted jointly by these two companies.

The Senate adopted the recommendation of the committee and urged the head of the NNPC to provide specific details of the crude oil delivered to the two refineries for audit.

Meanwhile, the Senate upheld the indictment of 37 MDAs for violation of financial procedure in their spending.

This is coming a few days after SaharaReporters reported how the Ogun State government dragged NNPC to court over unpaid tax liabilities running into N9 billion.

There were also allegations of outright theft by the staff of the defunct Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), who allegedly paid a total sum of N1 billion to its consultant, Messres Safaya, as part of the money she helped them to save on the tax refund demands by the Ogun State government.

Following the transition of the PPMC, there is the NNPC retail which is for filling station owners and retailers and NNPC trucking, which is for vessels tank farms and others.

However, the state government was surprised that nothing was paid to it, but NNPC paid itself to the tune of over a billion naira.

It was alleged that Messres Safaya was paid over N1 billion as 10 per cent consultancy fee but no document shows that the Ogun state government was paid a dime.

A staff member of the corporation who was not happy with the alleged fraud that was committed by the defunct staff members of the corporation cited instances of direct theft by the staff of the defunct PPMC. The staff member alleged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was turning a blind eye to the “massive fraud going on in NNPC because most of the principal actors involved are their people”.

The source alleged that most of the payments to the consultants were being shared by the management of the defunct PPMC.

He challenged the EFCC officials to look at the accounts of the consultants hired by the management of the PPMC and see how the money was distributed.

On how much he thought was paid to consultants from his office, he said he could say categorically that over N20 billion was stolen under the pretext of paying ghost consultants they hired.

However, Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC denied the fraud allegations, saying the company did not have or deal with ghost consultants.

He added that the “process of engaging consultants whenever the need arises is clear and verifiable and follows global best practices.”