Reports have emerged regarding Bayo Ojulari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). An online publication, Peoples Gazette, reported that Ojulari was allegedly detained on Friday, August 1, 2025, and coerced into signing a resignation letter by the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, and the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Adeola Ajayi. The report claims the incident was related to Ojulari's alleged connection to a British-Nigerian oil businesswoman, Olatimbo Ayinde, and that Ojulari denied knowing her.
In response, the Presidency has dismissed the reports as "false and unfounded." Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, confirmed that Ojulari remains the head of the NNPCL and that no resignation or dismissal has occurred. Ojulari was appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in April 2025 to reform the NNPCL.
This alleged incident follows a recent directive from the Senate, giving Ojulari three weeks to respond to queries in audit reports from 2017 to 2023 regarding an alleged unaccounted sum of N210tn. Ojulari, who has been in office for a little over 100 days, requested more time to review the 19 audit queries. He has also been under scrutiny for a trip of NNPCL executives to an oil and gas conference in Kigali, which some reports claim cost millions of dollars, an allegation he has denied.
