|By Babatunji Wusu
A citizens’ advocacy organisation has sounded the alarm over what it describes as the growing frequency and overlap of House of Representatives investigations into the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), cautioning that the trend could derail ongoing reforms in the petroleum sector.
The Forum for Energy Accountability (FEA), in a statement released on Friday, criticised the “incessant and overlapping” probes launched by multiple House committees in recent months. The group warned that the barrage of summons has created a climate of regulatory uncertainty capable of discouraging long-term investment in Africa’s largest oil and gas economy.
FEA President, Comrade Ebikeme Jonathan-Ogula, said the sheer volume of inquiries has begun to resemble a “regulatory siege,” arguing that the pattern sends troubling signals to international investors assessing Nigeria’s upstream, midstream, and gas development opportunities.
Jonathan-Ogula stressed that while legislative oversight remains a constitutional mandate, excessive and uncoordinated investigations risk disrupting operations at a time when Nigeria’s hydrocarbons industry is navigating major transitions under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), global energy shifts, and ongoing economic reforms.
According to him, “NNPCL must be accountable like any public-interest commercial entity. But accountability loses meaning when it becomes indistinguishable from harassment. What we have witnessed is a wave of overlapping summons that does not serve transparency.”
The group noted that investors already contend with significant uncertainties, including security challenges in producing regions, fiscal volatility, and infrastructure gaps. Repeated legislative summons that yield no new findings, it argued, only deepen perceptions of instability.
FEA cited recent parallel investigations into NNPCL’s crude sales, joint venture operations, frontier basin activities, external financing, and governance processes, describing them as duplicative exercises that fuel unnecessary speculation despite many of the issues being addressed through established audit or disclosure procedures.
“This scattershot approach to oversight weakens institutions rather than strengthens them,” the statement asserted, adding that the prolonged inquiries distract NNPCL from its core responsibilities of stabilising supply chains, expanding gas investments, and supporting domestic refining efforts.
Jonathan-Ogula urged the House leadership to streamline oversight by consolidating related inquiries under single committees and enforcing clear procedural timelines. He also called for closer coordination between the National Assembly and regulatory bodies such as the NUPRC and NMDPRA to prevent conflicts with ongoing regulatory reviews.
He maintained that Nigeria cannot afford investor hesitation at a time when global capital is shifting toward markets with stronger policy predictability. FEA appealed to the House leadership to intervene to ensure that legitimate oversight does not evolve into a deterrent to investment.
