By Kingston Magare 15.12.2025
Billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote has called on the Code of Conduct Bureau, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to beam their search light on the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) chief executive officer, Engr Farouk Ahmed.
Dangote who was speaking Sunday to media representatives in Lagos accused Engr Farouk Ahmed of corruption and also sabotaging Nigeria’s economy by undermining domestic petroleum refining in Nigeria.
He alleged that NMDPRA under Engr Ahmed is colluding with international traders and oil importers to frustrate local refining through the continued issuance of import licences for petroleum products.
“I am not calling for his removal, but for a proper investigation. He should be required to account for his actions and demonstrate that he has not compromised his position to the detriment of Nigerians. What is happening amounts to economic sabotage,” Dangote said.
He added that Engr Farouk Ahmed was living beyond his own means paying as much as $5m to a school in Switzerland for his children’s secondary school education.
“The Code of Conduct Bureau, or any other body deemed appropriate by the government, can investigate the matter. If he denies it, I will not only publish the tuition he paid at those secondary schools, but I will also take legal steps to compel the schools to disclose the payments made by Farouk.
“I sent my own children to secondary schools here in Nigeria. How many Nigerians can afford to pay five million dollars for secondary school tuition, not university education? In his home state of Sokoto, many parents are struggling to pay as little as N10,000 in school fees,” Dangote said.
Dangote added that “Oil Mafia” operating in Nigeria is even more powerful than drug cartels.
“There are powerful interests in the oil sector. It is troubling that African countries continue to import refined products despite long-standing calls for value addition and domestic refining. The volume of imports being allowed into the country is unethical and does a disservice to Nigeria.
“The downstream sector must not be destroyed by personal interests. A trader should never be a regulator. Forty-seven licences have been issued, yet no new refineries are being built because the environment is not conducive,” he said.
“I told you that drug mafia, they’re actually smaller than the people who are in oil and gas. Because most of the people who are in the drugs, you know yourselves, but in the oil sector, there are so many people,” he said.
Dangote and Farouk Ahmed...