The immediate past Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, on Thursday returned to the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Abuja for a second round of interrogation.
Kyari, who was first invited on Wednesday over allegations relating to the turnaround maintenance of refineries, petroleum resource management, and contract awards, was released late that night after several hours of questioning.
A senior EFCC official confirmed that Kyari remains on administrative bail and will continue to report to the commission until the investigation is concluded.
“He was released late yesterday, went home, and came back today. He is still with us as I speak. He is on administrative bail and will continue to report until we are done with the interrogation,” the source said.
As part of his bail conditions, the EFCC seized his passport and other travel documents to prevent him from leaving the country. “His passport and other travel documents are with us,” the source added.
When asked whether investigators had made any significant breakthroughs, the official simply said, “Investigation is still ongoing.”
In August, the EFCC secured a court order freezing four bank accounts linked to Kyari.
The anti-graft agency said preliminary findings revealed that the accounts—domiciled in Jaiz Bank—were used to warehouse over N661m, suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
Kyari, who became NNPC Group Managing Director in 2019 and later the first CEO of NNPCL after its transition into a limited liability company in 2021, has faced scrutiny over billions of naira reportedly spent on the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s four refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna.
The EFCC’s probe comes amid growing public frustration over the persistent failure of the refineries despite huge financial allocations for rehabilitation projects.
So far, the commission has reportedly recovered more than N5bn and $10m from contractors and government officials indicted in fraudulent refinery maintenance deals.
It is also working to recover an additional ₦10bn and $13m allegedly siphoned through contractors.
EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, has reportedly taken personal charge of the investigation, expressing displeasure at the continued non-functionality of the refineries despite massive expenditure.
According to the commission, fraudulent practices such as over-invoicing, contract inflation, and questionable payments were largely responsible for the failure of the facilities. It also disclosed that former management teams of the three refineries had been interrogated, with charges being prepared against some NNPCL officials linked to the contracts.
“Our investigation into the turnaround maintenance of the nation’s refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt has yielded major discoveries of large-scale fraud. Investigators discovered fraudulent dealings through over-invoicing, contract inflation and questionable payments, which were largely responsible for the malfunctioning of the refineries,” the EFCC stated.
Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries have remained largely dormant for decades despite repeated rehabilitation projects. Successive administrations have spent billions of dollars on turnaround maintenance, yet the facilities continue to underperform, forcing the country to rely heavily on imported petroleum products.
The EFCC is currently investigating a total of $1.5bn allocated to the Port Harcourt refinery, $740.6m released for the Kaduna refinery, and $656.9m approved for the Warri refinery.
