The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been dragged before the Federal High Court in Abuja for allegedly shielding the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Dapo Segun, from investigation in a multi-trillion-naira refinery fraud scandal.
The case, filed by civil rights group Rights for All International and marked FHC/ABJ/1580/2025, seeks an order of mandamus compelling the EFCC to launch an immediate probe into Segun’s alleged financial complicity in the controversial acquisition of OVH Energy and the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.
Segun, a former Executive Vice President (Downstream) of NNPCL, was said to have personally supervised both projects, which have since been marred by allegations of mismanagement, irregularities, and lack of transparency.
The applicant, through a legal team led by Nnamdi Kingdom Okere, argued that while the EFCC has opened investigations into some NNPCL officials, it has deliberately excluded Segun, who was the principal officer in charge during the transactions.
The group disclosed that despite a payment of $325.09 million (₦140.6 billion) for the acquisition of OVH Energy, the deal remains contentious and is under probe by the House of Representatives. Similarly, nearly $3 billion allegedly spent on refinery rehabilitation under Segun’s supervision has yielded no significant progress, the applicant claimed.
“In view of the monumental fraud evident in the acquisition of OVH Energy and the rehabilitation of the refineries, the EFCC has begun probing officers of the NNPCL but deliberately excluded the second respondent, the main official who personally supervised all the affairs under investigation,” the suit alleged.
Rights for All International insists the EFCC’s failure to investigate Segun amounts to a dereliction of duty, an abuse of power, and a violation of its statutory mandate.
The group is asking the court to:
No hearing date has been fixed yet, but the matter underscores growing civil society pressure on anti-graft institutions to ensure accountability in Nigeria’s oil sector, especially concerning high-profile contracts and abandoned refinery projects.