Farouk Ahmed defends integrity amid education funding allegations

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Engr. Farouk Ahmed, has issued a detailed public statement responding to allegations concerning the financing of his children’s education abroad, describing the claims as misleading and timed to undermine ongoing regulatory reforms.

In the statement titled “A Question of Integrity”, Ahmed said he welcomed scrutiny of his finances and called for a full investigation by relevant anti-corruption and oversight agencies.

He maintained that the allegations, which claim he spent $5 million on his children’s secondary education in Switzerland, were inconsistent with verified facts and his documented income.

Ahmed traced his career in Nigeria’s petroleum sector back to 1991, when he joined the civil service through competitive examination.

He highlighted a progression spanning more than three decades, from junior engineer in the former Department of Petroleum Resources to General Manager of the Crude Oil Marketing Division in 2012, Deputy Director in 2015, and ultimately Chief Executive of NMDPRA in 2021.

According to Ahmed, his career has been defined by technical competence and regulatory integrity rather than political patronage.

He said his appointment as NMDPRA CEO came with a mandate to implement the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) transparently and without favoritism, a task he acknowledged would provoke resistance from interests accustomed to regulatory opacity.

Addressing the education funding claims, Ahmed stated that three of his four children received merit-based scholarships covering between 40 and 65 percent of tuition costs.

He added that his late father, a businessman, established education trust funds for his grandchildren before his death in 2018, in line with family tradition.

Ahmed said the remaining expenses were covered through personal savings accumulated over decades of public service.

He noted that his annual remuneration as NMDPRA CEO—about ₦48 million including allowances—is publicly disclosed in audited reports, and that he has consistently filed asset declarations with the Code of Conduct Bureau since entering public service.

He further authorized educational institutions attended by his children to release financial records to authorized investigators.

Ahmed also linked the resurfacing of the allegations to recent regulatory actions by NMDPRA, including stricter licensing requirements, enforcement of fuel quality standards, and the publication of detailed supply and pricing data.

He rejected claims that the Authority’s import licensing decisions amounted to “economic sabotage,” stating that the PIA obliges the regulator to ensure supply security and prevent scarcity.

“A single-source supply model creates dangerous vulnerabilities that no responsible regulator can ignore,” he said, adding that regulatory independence inevitably creates friction with vested interests.

In a direct call for accountability, Ahmed invited the Code of Conduct Bureau to review his asset declarations, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to examine his financial records, and the National Assembly to conduct oversight of his tenure. He pledged full cooperation with any investigation conducted professionally and without bias.

Concluding his statement, Ahmed said he would not be intimidated into compromising regulatory standards or granting preferential treatment. “If the price of regulatory independence is personal attacks and manufactured scandals, I accept that price,” he said, expressing confidence that his record would withstand scrutiny.

The NMDPRA has yet to issue a separate institutional response, while no formal investigation has been publicly announced as of the time of filing this report.