BREAKING: Tinubu nominates Magnus Abe as NUPRC Chairman, sends 21 Board Members to Senate

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has nominated former Rivers South-East Senator, Magnus Abe, as Chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), following the resignation of Gbenga Komolafe.

The announcement came on Monday via a statement from Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, revealing that Tinubu has written to the Senate seeking confirmation for 21 nominees for the boards of NUPRC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).

“In the first letter, President Tinubu nominated Senator Magnus Abe to serve as the NUPRC board chair,” the statement said.

Abe, a two-term senator for Rivers South-East, previously served on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) board and currently chairs the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.

Other nominees for the NUPRC board include Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna State, and Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources. Both were nominated as non-executive commissioners.

Several executive commissioners were also named, including:

Muhammed Sabo Lamido – Finance

Edu Inyang – Exploration and Acreage

Justin Ezeala – Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning

Henry Darlington Oki – Development and Production

Indabawa Bashari Alka – Corporate Services and Administrationi

Mahmood Tijani – Health, Safety, and Environment

Ms Olayemi Adeboyejo was nominated as Secretary and Legal Adviser.

In a separate letter, President Tinubu nominated Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji, a lawyer with over 30 years’ experience in the energy sector, as Chairman of the NMDPRA board. Adeniji has previously served as technical adviser to the Minister of State for Petroleum and collaborated with the World Bank on Nigeria’s oil and gas reforms.

The President urged the Senate to approve the nominees swiftly, stressing that all appointees must carry out their duties professionally as regulators of the nation’s oil and gas sectors.