A civil society organisation, the Coalition of Nigerian Patriots for Good Governance, has issued a strong rebuke of the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Bayo Ojulari, accusing him of orchestrating systemic sabotage of national assets and engaging in blatant abuse of office.
In a text of press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the group’s national coordinator, Comrade Ibrahim Musa, said the concerns raised are shared by other civil society organisations, concerned workers, and transparency advocates, who are troubled by what they describe as the NNPCL boss’s alleged recklessness.
“Barely weeks after his appointment, Ojulari’s leadership has been characterized by impunity, secrecy, and destructive policies that threaten to derail the gains of the Renewed Hope Agenda and frustrate the tireless efforts of Mr. President in repositioning Nigeria’s oil and gas sector for sustainable growth and economic recovery.”
The group took particular issue with the alleged shutdown of national refineries soon after Ojulari assumed office, describing it as suspicious and unjustified.
“THE SUSPICIOUS SHUTDOWN OF NIGERIAN REFINERIES : “We question, in the strongest terms, the irrational and suspicious shutdown of our national refineries by Mr. Ojulari, barely 24 hours after his assumption of office on May 24th, 2025.Let it be on record that millions of taxpayers’ money has been invested in the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries, with several reports confirming that some of these refineries had started test-running and were functional.Yet, Mr. Ojulari without recourse to stakeholders, and without any official technical audit — (allegedly) ordered a shutdown of the facilities. This action is anti-people, anti-progress, and clearly targeted at undermining President Tinubu’s goal of achieving energy self-sufficiency and reducing fuel imports.”
The coalition also alleged an attempt by Ojulari to deliberately devalue the NNPCL in order to pave the way for what it called a rushed and questionable privatisation process.
“It is now an open secret within the industry that Mr. Ojulari has an agenda to deliberately demarket NNPCL in order to justify a hurried and shady privatisation process. We have credible information that buyers have already been lined up — cronies and proxies — waiting to acquire our national oil assets at giveaway prices.In the event he fails to privatise, Mr. Ojulari’s backup plan is to (allegedly) fabricate a bloated repair cost and demand new billions to ‘refix’ already working refineries. This is nothing short of economic sabotage and institutional capture.”
Raising further alarms, the coalition claimed crude oil intended for the Port Harcourt refinery was being diverted to private firms.
“This is a deliberate effort to sabotage the national refining effort and enrich private interests.This diversion must be investigated. We therefore call for an independent inspection by a team of credible, external engineers — including COREN and refinery experts — to verify the true operational state of the refineries and to determine if there was ever a genuine reason to shut them down.”
The group also emphasized what it described as a brain drain at the NNPCL under Ojulari’s leadership, citing the recent resignations of senior officials, including the Group Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Roland.
“Under Ojulari’s leadership style, NNPCL is bleeding talent. Over the past two weeks, several senior officials have resigned, including Group Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Roland, and other key department heads.Worse still, Ojulari (allegedly) frequently drops President Tinubu’s name, claiming he is untouchable and above scrutiny because he is “the President’s man.” This is not only false but also a disgraceful abuse of privilege. We know that President Tinubu is not a corrupt man and would never support or protect such conduct.”
The coalition warned that the NNPCL’s current trajectory was undermining national economic objectives.
“It is on record that President Tinubu has made it a national priority to raise Nigeria’s crude production from 1.6 million barrels per day to 3 million barrels per day. However, under Ojulari’s command, NNPCL is headed in the opposite direction — from transparency to secrecy, from performance to decay.Ojulari’s mismanagement is clearly undermining the bold reforms and credible image President Tinubu is trying to build both locally and internationally.”
In response, the coalition issued a series of demands to the Presidency and relevant authorities:
“We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately sack Bayo Ojulari as Group CEO of NNPCL. His continued stay in office is a threat to Nigeria’s energy security, oil sector reform, and economic recovery.We demand a full investigation into the ₦5.7 billion shady consultancy contract awarded under his leadership…
“We demand that EFCC invites and probes all parties involved in the Kigali retreat scandal, including estacode fraud, use of five private jets, and outrageous waste of public funds.We request the intervention of the National Assembly and COREN to immediately launch an independent technical audit of the nation’s refineries and expose the lies surrounding their shutdown.We urge the presidency to clean up the NNPCL, restore staff morale, and bring back professionalism, transparency, and patriotism.”
