A devious plot, said to have been masterminded by Ms. Olatinbo Ayinde, to forcefully remove the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPCL), Bayo Ojulari from office, has failed.
Over the weekend, it was reported that Ojulari was literally abducted by a combined team of the Economic and financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Security (DSS) who forced him to sign a prepared resignation letter.
However, sources at the two anti-graft agencies later denied that such a thing happened, saying they neither abducted Ojulari, nor forced him to sign any document.
But, Ojulari, an oil industry guru and consummate reformer, resumed work at the Abuja headquarters of NNPCL on Monday.
Before his return to his duty post, the story that went round said he was forced to resign on allegation of financial infractions, including that money belonging to him was found with a close associate of opposition leader, Atiku Abubakar, among other speculative stories.
Facts later emerged which made it clear that those allegations were deliberate lies, concocted and spread, to mislead the public and tarnish Ojulari’s enviable reputation.
Emerging facts also revealed that the plot to remove the NNPCL boss was hatched by a powerful oil industry cabal led by Ms. Olatinbo Ayinde, described as a mistress of a top government functionary in the presidency who worked clandestinely to remove Ojulari from office.
It was also said that Ms. Ayinde almost succeeded in using the EFCC and DSS, to remove Ojulari and to replace him with one Mr. Robinson Ewubare, a former Group Chief Operating Officer (GCOO) at NNPCL, believing he would be at her mercy to do her biddings.
It would be recalled that Ewubare recently resigned his appointment through WhatsApp message he personally sent to Ojularu but is still hanging around waiting for Ojulari’s ouster so he can take over the GCEC’s position.
The NNPCL power game played on for two days before Senator Oluremi Tinubu, wife of the President and First Lady of Nigeria reportedly got wind of Ms. Ayinde’s desperate and ambitious moves, stepped in and halted Ojulari’s persecution.
WHO IS MS. OLATINBO AYINDE?
According to her media handlers, Olatimbo Ayinde is a UK based business women who deals on oil, energy and logistics. She is said to be the ‘principal promoter and founding member of Dutchford Exploration and Production.
However, Ms. Ayinde has been described as a notorious influence peddler who has been at the centre of many multi-million Dollar corrupt deals involving prominent Nigerians in various economic fronts, mostly the nation’s oil and gas sub-sectors.
She is currently facing trial in the United Kingdom for alleged multibillion-Naira bribery deal involving former Petroleum Minister, Dezieani Alison-Madueke and former minister of state, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu. She was accused of been the facilitator of multimillion Dollars-bribe involving the two former top officials, as well as another case in which a former Managing Director of PPMC,
Haruna Momoh was alleged to have stolen over N2billion belonging to Nigeria.
In all these, Ayinda is said to be the deal anchor who facilitates dubious businesses, fix amount of money, in Dollars and Pounds to bribe Chief Executive Officers and other men/women of power and influence.
Only recently, the UK authorities were reported to be angry and furious with executives of Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies for not being as fast as expected in availing evidences in the trial of Olatinbo Ayinla as they hugely rely on evidences from Nigeria to nail her.
This was even as the agencies failed to turn over key evidence in the ongoing corruption trial of Ayinde, described in one report as a notorious influence-peddler.
Although Ayinde has been fixing high profile business deals and cutting large sum of money for herself for the past 20 years, she was the emergence of President Bola Tinubu as an opportunity to further assert herself and take a total grip of the Nigeria’s oil industry, therefore the plot and push to remove Bayo Ojulari and plant her own preferred candidate, named by a source to be Ewubare, the Group Chief Operating Officer (GCOO) at NNPCL who recently resigned from the company through text message but now making frantic efforts to return as the CEO.
According to the UK Crown Prosecution Service, Ms Ayinde delivered at least N1.3 billion in cash bribes to Mr Kachikwu while he served as minister under President Muhammadu Buhari. She was charged alongside Diezani Alison-Madueke, whom she allegedly bribed heavily in separate deals preceding the N1.3 billion to Mr Kachikwu.
Report also had it that British authorities had in 2024 sent letters to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, requesting details of Ms Ayinde’s bribes to Mr Kachikwu for use in the trial before Justice Justine Thornton of the High Court of England. The EFCC’s endorsement of the incriminating documents was required to be admissible in British courts.
“British officials had already guided Nigerian officials on how to obtain the files, and Justice Thornton, on November 25, 2024, gave them a deadline of June 2, 2025, to obtain the evidence ahead of the January 2026 trial at the King’s Bench Division.
However, despite getting the request for legal assistance on time, sources in EFCC said they were being frustrated from accessing the required trial documents due to Ayinde’s closeness to power and the influence she wields.
“They’re telling us to look away while pretending otherwise. Maybe they think it’s the only way they could help a woman so close to …, yet so close to being sent to jail for fraud,” a senior official was quoted to have said.
Another report also named Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi as directing the stalling of the records transfer, saying he didn’t seem to care whether or not Nigeria’s mutual legal assistance deal with the UK was violated.
But while she is expected to appear in the UK court on January 19, next year, Ms. Ayinde wanted to quickly grab a hold on Nigeria’s major cash how which would have availed her extra power and cash to fight her way out of the numerous bribery, money laundering and other fraud and other corruption related cases hanging on her neck.
Failed Coup at NNPC: See Olatinbo Ayinde, facilitator of multibillion dollar deals involving Dezieani, Ibe Kachikwu, PPMC’s Haruna Momoh, her attempt to oust Ojulari from office