Anti-graft Agency Grills Mele Kyari

Former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Engr. Mele Kyari, connected Wednesday, appeared earlier the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) successful Abuja for questioning implicit a multi-billion-dollar refinery attraction project.

Kyari arrived astatine the EFCC office astatine precisely 2:15 p.m., pursuing an authoritative invitation to clarify what sources described arsenic “financial and method issues” linked to his tenure astatine the state-owned lipid company.

EFCC sources confirmed the incidental past night. They said the erstwhile NNPCL brag was interrogated astir the arguable $7.2 cardinal turnaround attraction task for the refineries. This woody has faced years of nationalist disapproval and allegations of gross mismanagement.

The improvement came conscionable days aft the Federal High Court successful Abuja ordered a impermanent frost of 4 slope accounts allegedly linked to Kyari implicit suspected fraud and fiscal impropriety. The EFCC had placed him connected its watchlist, which heightened scrutiny of his stewardship.

While details of Wednesday’s league remained sketchy, analysts accidental Kyari’s quality signalled the EFCC’s renewed determination to prosecute high-profile corruption cases successful Nigeria’s lipid and state sector, a assemblage agelong regarded arsenic the backbone of the nation’s system but arsenic dogged by scandals.

Kyari was placed connected the EFCC’s ticker database successful transportation with a $7.2 cardinal refinery’s turnaround attraction project.

Kyari, who served arsenic GMD of the NNPCL from 2019 until his replacement successful July 2024, oversaw a play of immoderate reforms, including the modulation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation into a constricted liability company.

However, EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale could not beryllium reached to corroborate oregon contradict the story.