President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, held a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, against the backdrop of escalating allegations by industrialist, Aliko Dangote.
After the meeting, Tinubu forwarded to the Senate the names of two nominees to head Nigeria’s key petroleum regulatory agencies, following the resignation of Farouk and the Chief Executive of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe.
Meanwhile, legal luminaryand Senior Partner at Olisa Agbakoba Legal (OAL), Dr Olisa Agbakoba(SAN), has raised concerns over the ongoing standoff between Dangote Petroleum Refinery and NMDPRA, warning that the dispute transcends commercial disagreement and strikes at the heart of Nigeria’s governance over its hydrocarbon resources.
Farouk and Komolafe were appointed in 2021 by the late President Muhammadu Buhari to lead the twin regulators established under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
In separate letters to the Senate, Tinubu requested the confirmation of Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as Chief Executive Officer of the NUPRC and Saidu Mohammed as Chief Executive Officer of the NMDPRA, urging the upper chamber to expedite consideration of the nominations.
The two nominees are seasoned professionals with decades of experience across Nigeria’s oil and gas value chain.
Ms Eyesan, an Economics graduate of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), spent nearly 33 years with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its subsidiaries. She retired in 2024 after serving as Executive Vice President, Upstream (2023-2024), and previously held the position of Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy, between 2019 and 2023.
Her career spans upstream operations, strategic planning and policy coordination within Nigeria’s national oil company.
Mohammed, born in 1957 in Gombe State, is a Chemical Engineering graduate of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Class of 1981. He was announced on Tuesday as an independent Non-Executive Director at Seplat Energy.
