The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, has resigned.

Similarly, his counterpart at the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe, has stepped down.

Based on the development, President Bola Tinubu has asked the Senate to confirm new chief executives for the two agencies.

The President’s request was contained in separate letters to the Senate on Wednesday.

This was announced in a statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

Both officials were appointed in 2021 by former President Muhammadu Buhari after the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act.

According to the statement, Tinubu “has written to the Senate, requesting expedited confirmation of Oritsemeyiwa Amanorisewo Eyesan as CEO of NUPRC and Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as CEO of NMDPRA.”

The statement noted that Eyesan, an economist and oil industry veteran, spent nearly 33 years at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and its subsidiaries.

She retired in 2024 as Executive Vice President, Upstream, and previously served as Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy.

Mohammed, a chemical engineer and former Managing Director of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company and the Nigerian Gas Company, has also served on several energy sector boards.

He recently emerged as an independent non-executive director at Seplat Energy.

“The two nominees are seasoned professionals in the oil and gas industry,” the statement noted.

Ahmed’s resignation comes amid a high-profile conflict with Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, which drew national attention in December 2025.

The dispute arose from Dangote’s allegations that Ahmed and his family were living beyond their legitimate means, citing millions of dollars allegedly spent on overseas schooling for his four children.

Dangote petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to investigate and prosecute Ahmed for abuse of office and corrupt enrichment, sparking a nationwide debate over regulatory oversight in Nigeria’s petroleum sector.

The NMDPRA chief dismissed Dangote’s claims as “wild and spurious,” insisting that he would rather defend himself before a formal investigative body than engage in public arguments.

The conflict, which traces its roots to 2024 when Ahmed criticised domestic refinery output—including Dangote’s refinery—prompted intervention by the House of Representatives, which summoned both parties to avoid destabilising the sector.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday evening met with the embattled Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, at the State House, Abuja.

The meeting came amid allegations of financial impropriety made by industrialist and President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, against the NMDPRA boss.

Dangote and Ahmed have been at odds for a while now over downstream petroleum regulation and the future of domestic refining in Nigeria.

At a press conference on Sunday at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Dangote accused the NMDPRA, under Mr Ahmed’s leadership, of economic sabotage, alleging that regulatory actions were undermining local refining capacity.

He claimed that the continued issuance of import licences for petroleum products was frustrating domestic refiners and deepening Nigeria’s reliance on fuel imports.

The billionaire industrialist further alleged that the regulator was colluding with international traders and petroleum importers to the detriment of local operators, accusations to which the NMDPRA has yet to publicly respond.

Mr Dangote also made personal allegations against the NMDPRA chief, claiming that Mr Ahmed was living beyond his legitimate means.

He 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 concerns about conflicts of interest and the integrity of regulatory oversight in the downstream petroleum sector.

On Monday, Mr Dangote escalated the claims, accusing Mr Ahmed of corruption and misappropriation of public funds.

He alleged that about $5 million was spent on the secondary education and upkeep of the children 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 them.

The controversy deepened on Tuesday when Mr Dangote, through his lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), calling for Mr Ahmed’s arrest, investigation, and prosecution.

In the petition addressed to ICPC Chairman Musa Aliyu, Mr Dangote alleged that the NMDPRA chief “spent without evidence of lawful means of income amounting to over $7 million for the education of his four children” in Switzerland.

The petition reportedly included the names of the children, the schools attended, and detailed figures for verification.

Mr Ahmed arrived at the Presidential Villa at about 5:30 p.m. and left the President’s office after less than 30 minutes.

He declined to speak with journalists as he exited the State House and offered no comment on the allegations or the outcome of his meeting with President Tinubu.

The immediate past Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority, Bola Oyebamiji, on Saturday emerged as the consensus candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the forthcoming Osun State governorship election.

Oyebamiji’s emergence followed a motion moved by two governorship aspirants, Kunle Adegoke (SAN) and Senator Babajide Omoworare, at the primary election venue located within the premises of Ebunoluwa Group of Schools, Osogbo.

The Chairman of the APC governorship primary committee and Governor of Edo State, Monday Okpebholo, thereafter subjected the motion to a voice vote, which received overwhelming support from party members present at the primary.

Okpebholo subsequently declared, “By the power conferred on me, I present to you Bola Oyebamiji, as the governorship candidate of our party.”

Newsthumb earlier reported that the APC governorship primary in Osun State commenced in Osogbo, the state capital, with the arrival of the committee chairman, Monday Okpebholo, who noted that the candidate will emerge by affirmation.

APC’s gov candidate Oyebamiji pledges to reposition Osun
He arrived at the venue alongside the co-chairman of the committee, Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State, and other members of the governorship primary committee, including Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, who represented the Lagos State Governor, and former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello.

Earlier on Tuesday, 1660 delegates that would elect the APC candidate in the December 13 governorship primary of the party emerged.

There were also clear indications that the seven APC governorship aspirants in the state had stepped down to back a consensus flagbearer after a late-night meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, on Wednesday.

A former APC National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, on Wednesday, speaking on a TVC News programme, Politics Tonight, declared his support for the party’s arrangement to choose a consensus candidate for the 2026 Osun State governorship election.

Omisore, who was among seven aspirants disqualified by the APC Screening Committee for alleged violations of party guidelines and electoral provisions, said he accepted the decision following guidance from President Bola Tinubu.

The Supreme Court has overridden the pardon granted by President Bola Tinubu to an Abuja-based house wife, Maryam Sanda, who was in 2020 sentenced to death by hanging for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, during a domestic dispute.

President Tinubu had reduced Sanda’s sentence to 12 years imprisonment on compassionate ground.

But in a judgment a on Friday, the Supreme Court, in a split decision of four-to-one, affirmed the death sentence handed Sanda by the Court of Appeal, Abuja which upheld the decision of a HIgh Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sentencing her to death by hanging.

The Apex Court resolved all the issues raised in the appeal she filed against her and dismissed the appeal for being without merit.

Court orders woman accused of killing husband to enter defence
Justice Moore Adumein held in the lead judgment, which he personally delivered, that the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt as required, adding that the Court of Appeal was right to have affirmed the judgement of the trial court.

Justice Adumein held that it was wrong for the Executive to seek to exercise its power of pardon over a case of culpable homicide, in respect of which an appeal was pending.