Farouk Ahmed, chief executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), and Gbenga Komolafe, chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), have resigned from their positions.
Bayo Onanuga, spokesperson to President Bola Tinubu, announced the development in a statement on Wednesday.
This comes days after allegations of corruption were levelled against Ahmed by Aliko Dangote, president and chief executive of Dangote Industries Limited.
Both officials were appointed in 2021 by late President Muhammadu Buhari to head the two petroleum regulators established under the Petroleum Industry Act.
Following their exits, Tinubu also forwarded fresh nominations to the Senate for the leadership of the two agencies.
In separate letters, Tinubu requested the senate’s expedited confirmation of Oritsemeyiwa Amanorisewo Eyesan as chief executive of the NUPRC.
The president also nominated Saidu Aliyu Mohammed, engineer, as chief executive of the NMDPRA.
The nominations were presented as part of efforts to ensure continuity and effective oversight within Nigeria’s oil and gas regulatory framework.
Eyesan is an economics graduate of the University of Benin with nearly 33 years of experience at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and its subsidiaries.
She retired from NNPC as executive vice president, upstream, after previously serving as group general manager for corporate planning and strategy between 2019 and 2023.
Mohammed, born in 1957 in Gombe state, holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
He was recently named an independent non-executive director at Seplat Energy and previously served as managing director of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company and the Nigerian Gas Company.
Mohammed also chaired the boards of the West African Gas Pipeline Company, Nigeria LNG subsidiaries, and NNPC Retail.
As group executive director and chief operating officer of the gas and power directorate, he provided strategic leadership on major gas projects and policy frameworks, including the Gas Masterplan, Gas Network Code, and contributions to the Petroleum Industry Act.
He played key roles in projects such as the Escravos–Lagos Pipeline Expansion, the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano gas pipeline, and Nigeria LNG Train developments.
The senate is expected to consider the nominations in the coming days.
