{"id":73696,"date":"2025-08-20T12:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T12:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=73696"},"modified":"2025-08-20T12:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T12:40:08","slug":"7-2-billion-scandal-mele-kyari-on-efcc-watchlist-accounts-frozen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/08\/20\/7-2-billion-scandal-mele-kyari-on-efcc-watchlist-accounts-frozen\/","title":{"rendered":"$7.2 Billion Scandal: Mele Kyari on EFCC Watchlist, Accounts Frozen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has placed former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, on its watchlist amid investigations into the alleged mismanagement of $7.2 billion earmarked for refinery turnaround maintenance.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered a 30-day freeze of four Jaiz Bank accounts linked to Kyari over allegations of conspiracy, abuse of office, and money laundering.<\/p>\n<p>The accounts include two in his name and two others tied to the Guwori Community Development Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Emeka Nwite granted the order following an ex parte application by EFCC counsel Ogechi Ujam, who argued that the freeze was necessary to preserve suspected proceeds of unlawful activity.<\/p>\n<p>The judge ruled that the order may be renewed if required and adjourned the case to September 23.<\/p>\n<p>EFCC sources revealed that the probe has advanced significantly, with several of Kyari\u2019s close associates; including former Chief Financial Officer Umar Ajiya Isa and ex-refinery managing directors already arrested and interrogated. Investigators are scrutinizing the disbursement of funds meant for refinery repairs.<\/p>\n<p>According to EFCC filings, preliminary findings uncovered suspicious inflows of over \u20a6661 million into the frozen accounts, allegedly laundered under the guise of payments for a book launch and NGO activities.<\/p>\n<p>The funds were reportedly managed by Kyari and controlled through family members acting as fronts.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation, spearheaded by the EFCC\u2019s Special Investigations Section, stems from a petition filed in April by the Guardian of Democracy and Rule of Law.<\/p>\n<p>The commission has directed Jaiz Bank to provide detailed account records and has placed a \u201cno debit\u201d restriction on the accounts pending further court orders.<\/p>\n<p>Kyari was removed from office in April 2025 by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during a major shake-up of the NNPCL board, which saw Bashir Ojulari appointed as the new CEO effective April 2.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, several former NNPCL officials, including those overseeing the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries, are also under investigation for alleged corruption, diversion of funds, and kickbacks. They have been ordered to report regularly to EFCC investigators as the probe continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has placed former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, on its watchlist amid investigations into the alleged mismanagement of $7.2 billion earmarked for refinery turnaround maintenance. On Tuesday, the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":73697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73698,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73696\/revisions\/73698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}