The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has made a high-profile arrest in what could become one of Nigeria’s largest oil sector fraud scandals in history.
Umar Isa, a former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), is currently in custody over an alleged $7.2 billion fraud connected to the failed turnaround maintenance of Nigeria’s three major refineries Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt.
Also arrested is Jimoh Olasunkanmi, former Managing Director of the Warri Refinery. Several other top officials are under EFCC investigation for abuse of office, diversion of public funds, and alleged kickbacks from contractors.
As CFO, Isa authorized the release of colossal funds for the so-called refinery rehabilitation projects. Yet, decades and trillions of naira later, Nigeria’s refineries remain non-functional, despite repeated promises of revival.
This bombshell arrest comes just days after the Senate Committee on Public Accounts flagged alarming discrepancies in NNPC’s audited financial statements from 2017 to 2023, describing them as “mind-boggling.”
The EFCC’s probe may finally pull back the curtain on what has long been described as the black hole of Nigeria’s oil sector a sector plagued for decades by corruption, secrecy, and systemic sabotage.
