By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
ABUJA — THE Chief Executive Officer, of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, Engr. Farouk Ahmed, on Wednesday evening paid a visit to the presidential villa, Abuja, and proceeded straight to the president office.
The NMDPRA boss was recently dragged to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, by industrialist Aliko Dangote over alleged corruption.
Ahmed and Mr Dangote, Africa’s richest man and chairman of Dangote Cement and Dangote Industries Limited, have in recent days been locked in a public dispute over Nigeria’s downstream petroleum regulation and the future of domestic refining.
On Sunday, Alhaji Dangote accused the NMDPRA leadership, headed by Ahmed, of economic sabotage, alleging that regulatory actions were undermining local refining capacity in Nigeria.
Speaking at a press conference at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the richest African businessman claimed that the continued issuance of import licences for petroleum products was frustrating domestic refiners and entrenching dependence on imports.
Dangote further alleged that the NMDPRA was colluding with international traders and oil importers to the detriment of local operators, a charge the regulator has yet to publicly address.
He also raised personal allegations against the NMDPRA chief, claiming that Mr Ahmed was living beyond his legitimate means.
Dangote alleged that four of Mr. Ahmed’s children attend secondary schools in Switzerland at costs running into several millions of dollars, arguing that such expenditure raised questions about potential conflicts of interest and the integrity of regulatory oversight in the downstream petroleum sector.
On Monday, Dangote escalated the claims, accusing Ahmed of corruption and misappropriation of public funds, and providing estimates of the costs allegedly incurred on his children’s education abroad.
He claimed that about $5 million was spent on secondary education and upkeep over six years, with an additional $2 million on tertiary education, including an alleged $210,000 for a 2025 Harvard MBA programme for one of Mr Ahmed’s children.
The controversy deepened on Tuesday when Mr Dangote, through his lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, submitted a petition to the ICPC, calling for Ahmed’s arrest, investigation and prosecution.
The petition, addressed to ICPC Chairman Musa Aliyu, alleged that Mr Ahmed “spent without evidence of lawful means of income amounting to over $7 million for the education of his four children” in Switzerland, and reportedly included the names of the children, the schools attended and specific figures for verification.
Mr Ahmed who arrived the Presidential Villa about 5:30pm left the President’s office after less than 25 minutes.
As at the time of filling this report, there was no information whether he met with the president and if at all they met, the agenda of the meeting was not made public.
Neither the presidency nor the NMDPRA has issued an official statement on the allegations as of press time.
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