Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, EFCC, brought in the former CEO of the state oil company Wednesday for questioning as it probes the firm’s former executives, authorities said.
Rich in oil wealth but home to millions living in poverty, Nigeria’s petroleum industry has long been hampered by corruption from both domestic players and foreign multinationals.
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A spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) told AFP that Mele Kyari, ex-CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), was brought in for questioning, without offering further details.
Kyari was dismissed in April by Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, along with the entire NNPC board.
Soon after the EFCC announced a money laundering investigation.
The anti-graft agency also asked the NNPC to turn over the financial documents concerning 14 of its current and former executives, including Kyari.
Aside from Kyari, the EFCC had also named former managing director Abubakar Yar’Adua, former directors of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries, Ibrahim Onoja and Mustafa Sugungun, as well as former chief financial officer Umar Ajiya.
The NNPC has long been the subject of allegations of corruption, political interference and mismanagement.
Before last year’s opening of the privately owned Dangote refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, Nigeria had to import almost all its petrol despite being a major oil producer.
Critics pointed to years of neglect and mismanagement of government-owned refineries.
In January, US authorities returned to Nigeria nearly $53 million in ill-gotten money recovered from an ex-petroleum minister.
AFP