The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) and more than 75 civil society organisations under the Coalition of National Civil Society Organisations (CNCSOs) have called for the establishment of an independent judicial commission of inquiry into the financial activities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) during the tenure of its former Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari.
The groups also expressed doubts about the ability of the National Assembly of Nigeria to ensure meaningful accountability through its ongoing investigation into an alleged N210 trillion accounting discrepancy in the records of the national oil company.
In a joint statement signed by CNPP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, James Ezema, and CNCSOs National Secretary, Ali Abacha, the organisations argued that legislative probes in Nigeria have historically yielded little in terms of prosecution or punishment for officials implicated in corruption.
The statement was issued in response to the ongoing Senate investigation into financial discrepancies linked to the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, particularly during the period Kyari headed the organisation.
According to the groups, parliamentary investigations since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999 have often generated public attention but rarely resulted in criminal prosecution or convictions.
They said Nigerians had become familiar with what they described as a recurring pattern in corruption investigations in which public scandals trigger legislative hearings, officials are summoned, reports are promised, and the issue gradually fades from public attention without consequences.
The organisations noted that the Senate’s probe into the NNPCL accounts had once again brought concerns about transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s petroleum sector to the forefront of national discourse.
While acknowledging the Senate’s decision to summon former officials of the company to explain the controversial figures, they warned that the investigation must not follow what they described as a familiar trajectory of inconclusive probes.
“For more than two decades, Nigerians have witnessed countless legislative probes that ended without prosecution, conviction or imprisonment of those responsible for corruption uncovered during the hearings,” the statement said.
The coalition said it had repeatedly raised concerns during the tenure of the former NNPCL management led by Kyari, citing alleged opaque accounting practices and questionable financial disclosures relating to subsidy payments, crude oil transactions and operational expenditures.
The groups also revisited the long-standing controversy surrounding the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries, particularly the Port Harcourt Refinery.
According to them, billions of dollars were reportedly spent on the rehabilitation of the refineries, yet the expected improvement in domestic refining capacity has not been achieved.
They argued that repeated announcements by officials of the national oil company suggesting that the refineries had been successfully rehabilitated were later contradicted when the facilities failed to function as expected.
The recent shutdown of operations at the Port Harcourt Refinery by the new NNPCL management, they said, had raised additional questions about the effectiveness of the earlier rehabilitation projects.
Despite the scale of the investments, the organisations lamented that no public official had been successfully prosecuted or jailed in connection with the refinery rehabilitation efforts.
The coalition also expressed concern over what it described as unequal enforcement of anti-corruption laws in the country.
It accused anti-graft agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) of showing greater urgency in prosecuting political opponents than in investigating high-ranking public officials accused of large-scale financial misconduct.
According to the statement, some members of the immediate past management of the NNPCL, including Kyari, were reportedly invited and briefly detained by the EFCC following their removal from office.
However, the organisations said the Nigerian public had not been informed of any significant outcome from the investigation.
They contrasted this with what they described as aggressive prosecution of some political figures outside the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), many of whom they said had faced prolonged detention or repeated arrests even after being granted bail by courts.
The groups warned that such disparities could create the perception that anti-corruption enforcement in Nigeria is selective and politically motivated.
To address the controversy, the CNPP and the civil society coalition called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to establish an independent judicial commission of inquiry into the finances and operations of the NNPCL.
According to them, the proposed inquiry should cover the period from 2015 to the present and include a comprehensive forensic audit of the company’s financial records, contracts, crude oil transactions and subsidy payments.
They also urged investigators to examine all funds allocated to the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s refineries, including the Port Harcourt Refinery and other federal facilities.
The organisations insisted that the decisions and activities of the NNPCL management under Kyari must be thoroughly scrutinised.
They further demanded that the findings of the forensic audit and judicial inquiry be made public and that any officials found culpable should be prosecuted.
According to the coalition, allegations involving trillions of naira must not end in public outrage without accountability.
“If the administration of President Tinubu is committed to fighting corruption, investigations must extend to the most powerful actors in Nigeria’s strategic economic institutions,” the statement added.