Tinubu nominates Magnus Abe for NUPRC chairmanship, requests senate approval

President Bola Tinubu has put forward former Rivers South-East lawmaker, Senator Magnus Abe, for appointment as Chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), in the wake of the exit of the commission’s former head, Gbenga Komolafe.

The nomination was made public on Monday through a statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga. According to the statement, President Tinubu has forwarded two separate letters to the Senate, seeking legislative confirmation for 21 nominees to serve on the governing boards of the 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,” Onanuga stated.

Abe, who served two terms as senator representing Rivers South-East, previously sat on the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. He is also the current chairman of the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.

Also nominated as non-executive commissioners on the NUPRC board are Engineer Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former chairman of the Trade Union Congress in Kaduna State, and Mr. Sunday Adebayo Babalola, who once served as a deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources.

For executive roles within the commission, the president named Muhammed Sabo Lamido as commissioner for finance; Edu Inyang for exploration and acreage management; Justin Ezeala for economic regulation and strategic planning; Henry Darlington Oki for development and production; Indabawa Bashari Alka for corporate services and administration; and Mahmood Tijani for health, safety and environment. Ms. Olayemi Adeboyejo was appointed as secretary and legal adviser to the board.

In a separate communication to the Senate, President Tinubu nominated Mr. Adegbite Ebiowei Adeniji as Chairman of the board of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority. Adeniji is a legal practitioner with over three decades of experience in the energy sector.

The president urged lawmakers to “approve the nominees expeditiously,” stressing that the nominations followed the recent appointment of chief executive officers for both regulatory bodies and charging all appointees to carry out their duties “professionally as regulators of the oil and gas sectors.”