The Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Mr. Bayo Ojulari, on Monday, reported to his duty post amid rumours of his resignation.
Ojulari, who was reported to have thrown in the towel late last week, today reported to work at about 9:35 am, putting to rest claims and counterclaims of his resignation.
A security source who is familiar with the matter told Vanguard earlier on Monday that it was not true that Ojulari had resigned from his strategic post.
The top source said, “At about 0935 hours, Bayo OJULARI, GCEO NNPCL reported to the office. He is currently engaging with his usual official duties.”
“Meanwhile, staff have been asked via internal memo to disregard news circulating in the social media regarding his purported resignation,” the security source stated, but did not give further details as to where Ojulari was and why he resurfaced early today.
Several reports emerged at the weekend that Ojulari had allegedly resigned from the NNPC, Nigeria’s state oil firm, but there has been no official confirmation until the man reported to his desk today.
Appointed on April 2, 2025, by President Bola Tinubu as part of a sweeping overhaul of the company’s board and management, Ojulari has, over the past five months, remained largely inaccessible to the Nigerian media.
The company’s communication challenges were compounded by the sudden resignation of its Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Mr. Olufemi Soneye, on June 21, 2025. Since then, the Corporate Communications Department has had no publicly designated head, making it nearly impossible to obtain official responses on company matters.
Since the online reports of Ojulari’s alleged resignation broke, all inquiries to staff of the department have gone unanswered.
Over the years, access to the NNPC Towers, which houses both the company and the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, has become increasingly restricted to journalists. Visitors are now required to present a physical invitation note, and even then, entry is denied unless their names are submitted in advance to security at the gate. This has made it even more difficult for the media to gain access to the premises.
Access cannot even be granted to journalists into the vast compound unless the officer who invites the journalists speaks to the security agents at the gate.
The resignation of Soneye and the inability of Ojulari to appoint another spokesman before now have effectively blocked access to journalists into the company.
Attempts to speak with Ojulari did not yield any result as he did not pick his calls or respond to WhatsApp messages yesterday, when Vanguard reached out to him repeatedly for comments.
But a source in the NNPCL, who pleaded anonymity because he was not permitted to speak, said: “Bashir Bayo Ojulari has not resigned as reported in some online media. I am not supposed to speak to the media and we don’t have a spokesman yet.
“Let me say that it is a sad situation, which has affected our operations. Ojulari was just settling down to work. Now, everyone has been distracted. I hope we can put it behind us so that the normal environment can be created for work.”
VANGUARD
