Two of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s most senior appointees in Nigeria’s petroleum regulatory sector have resigned from office, prompting the President to forward the names of their proposed successors to the Senate for confirmation.
In a statement issued on December 17, 2025, the Presidency announced the resignation of Engineer Farouk Ahmed, Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), and Mr. Gbenga Komolafe, Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
The statement, signed by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed that both officials, who were appointed in 2021 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, stepped down from the agencies established under the Petroleum Industry Act.
Hours before his resignation, Ahmed visited President Tinubu at the State House in Abuja. Dressed in traditional attire, the Bauchi-born official spent less than 30 minutes at the premises and declined to speak with journalists on his departure, saying it was already past official working hours.
Following their exit, President Tinubu wrote to the Senate seeking expedited confirmation of new nominees to lead the two regulators. To replace Komolafe at the NUPRC, the President nominated Oritsemeyiwa Amanorisewo Eyesan, while Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed was nominated to head the NMDPRA.
The Presidency described both nominees as seasoned professionals with decades of experience in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Eyesan, an Economics graduate of the University of Benin, spent nearly 33 years with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiaries, retiring as Executive Vice President, Upstream, in the 2023–2024 period. She previously served as Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy, from 2019 to 2023.
Engineer Mohammed, born in 1957 in Gombe State, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, obtained in 1981. He was also announced on the same day as an independent non-executive director at Seplat Energy. His career spans leadership roles as Managing Director of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company and the Nigerian Gas Company, as well as chairmanship positions on the boards of the West African Gas Pipeline Company, Nigeria LNG subsidiaries, and NNPC Retail.
He also served as Group Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power Directorate, where he provided strategic leadership for major national gas initiatives and policy frameworks, including the Gas Masterplan, the Gas Network Code, and contributions to the Petroleum Industry Act. The Presidency noted that Mohammed played key roles in delivering landmark projects such as the Escravos–Lagos Pipeline Expansion, the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano Gas Pipeline, and the Nigeria LNG Train projects.
While the State House statement did not disclose the circumstances surrounding the resignations, the sudden departure of both regulators has intensified public scrutiny of the petroleum sector amid allegations of corruption and governance failures within key institutions.
The development follows a petition submitted by the Chairman of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission against Farouk Ahmed. In the petition dated December 16 and submitted through his lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, SAN, Dangote called for the arrest, investigation, and prosecution of the former NMDPRA chief over allegations that he lived far beyond his legitimate means as a public servant.
