Idle Port Harcourt Refinery: Group Presses EFCC, DSS For Action
Pressure is mounting on Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies to unravel what became of the $1.5 billion sunk into the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery, with a Niger Delta advocacy group now demanding a forensic look at the spending and a wider audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s books.
The South South Youths Initiative made the call in a statement signed on Sunday by its National President, Imeabe Oscar, expressing frustration that the plant remains idle years after the money was committed and several operational deadlines came and went. According to the group, the funds approved for the refurbishment have not translated into any resumption of refining. “We demand to know where the $1.5 billion went, as the continuous postponement of operational deadlines has raised serious questions about the project,” the statement said.
The grievance carries particular weight in the region because of how the rehabilitation was financed. SSYI pointed to the loan secured during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, a facility it said was backed by crude oil allocations. “What this means is that we are using crude oil from the Niger Delta to repay a loan for a refinery that is yet to become fully functional. This situation has become a major source of concern to the people of the region,” the group stated.
The complaint lands against a well documented backdrop. The Port Harcourt Refining Company, sitting on the Eleme axis of Rivers State, was rehabilitated at a cost of about $1.5 billion under former NNPC boss Mele Kyari and reopened with fanfare in November 2024 after nearly three years of work. That celebration proved short lived. The facility struggled almost from the start and was shut down again in May 2025 after piling up sustained losses.
By early 2026, even the leadership of the national oil company had publicly written off the exercise. Speaking at the Nigerian International Energy Summit in February, NNPC Limited’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, described the reopening as a waste of resources and admitted the company lacked the capacity to run its refineries profitably. “The first thing that became clear was that we were running at a monumental loss to Nigeria. We were just wasting money. I can say that confidently now,” Ojulari said, adding that utilisation had hovered around 50 to 55 per cent while cargoes of crude lost their value inside a plant that could not turn them into returns. He said NNPC was now looking to hand its refineries to experienced private operators rather than continue managing them in house.
The financial cost of keeping the plant shut has itself been steep. Reports indicate the closure cost the government an estimated $249.7 million, roughly N366.21 billion, over the 156 days between 24 May and 31 October 2025.
SSYI’s demand also plugs into a larger accountability battle already under way in the National Assembly. The group threw its weight behind the Senate Public Accounts Committee’s probe of discrepancies flagged in NNPCL’s audited records covering 2017 to 2023, and singled out Senator Adams Oshiomhole for praise. “We throw our support behind the Senate probe and commend Senator Adams Oshiomhole for his insistence that all issues surrounding the financial records of the NNPCL should be thoroughly investigated,” the group said.
That Senate inquiry, chaired at various sittings by Senators Aliyu Wadada and Ibrahim Dankwambo, has grown into one of the most explosive oversight exercises in recent legislative memory. The committee is examining 19 audit queries raised by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation, tied to unresolved entries that lawmakers put at about N210 trillion, broken into N103 trillion in accrued expenses and N107 trillion in receivables. On 10 June 2026, the panel ordered the arrest of Kyari after his repeated failure to appear, a move the Senate leadership under President Godswill Akpabio later moved to distance itself from. Former Chief Financial Officer Umar Ajiya has rejected the entire premise, telling the committee there was “no missing money” and describing the figure as mathematically impossible against the company’s total revenue of about N54.5 trillion for the period.
The refinery saga is not new to the courts of public opinion in the Niger Delta. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was reported in 2025 to have opened its own inquiry into how the $1.5 billion for Port Harcourt, along with funds for the Warri and Kaduna plants, was spent, amid allegations of inflated contracts and irregular procurement. Host communities in Eleme and Okrika have separately agitated for answers, and the plant’s collapse has become a recurring test of the Tinubu administration’s energy reform promises, especially now that the privately owned Dangote Refinery has taken pressure off the state on fuel supply.
SSYI called on the EFCC, the Department of State Services and other relevant agencies to carry out what it described as a comprehensive investigation into the rehabilitation project and related financial matters. “We believe that a transparent investigation and the prosecution of anyone found culpable will help address the concerns and grievances of the people of the Niger Delta,” the statement noted.
The group warned that it was prepared to mobilise its members for peaceful protests should its demands be ignored. “We will continue to press for accountability and ensure that the resources of the Niger Delta are managed in a manner that benefits the people,” it added.