Oil Veteran Sacked Four Months After Sacrificing Seplat Board Seat for Tinubu’s Job
President Bola Tinubu has approved the removal of Saidu Aliyu Mohammed as Authority Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), four months after his appointment.
The decision was announced in a State House press release issued on Wednesday by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, has approved the removal of Mr Saidu Mohammed as the Authority Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), in the public interest,” Onanuga said.
According to the statement, the action was taken pursuant to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 and is intended to strengthen regulatory effectiveness in Nigeria’s midstream and downstream petroleum sector in line with the administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Mohammed’s ouster came just over four months after the NMDPRA job forced him to forgo a board role at Seplat Energy. On 17 December 2025, Seplat’s board announced his appointment as an independent non-executive director, effective 1 January 2026. Later that same day, it emerged that Tinubu had nominated him to lead the NMDPRA following the resignation of Farouk Ahmed, who stepped aside amid corruption allegations that had been publicly raised by billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote.
On 22 December 2025, Seplat confirmed it had received formal notification from Mohammed withdrawing his acceptance of the board appointment due to a conflict of interest arising from his federal appointment. The company congratulated him and said it supported the “national assignment.”
Mohammed is a veteran energy executive with more than 37 years’ experience across Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, with a focus on gas development, commercialisation and infrastructure. He previously served as Group Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), where he helped shape major gas projects and policy frameworks, including the Gas Masterplan, the Gas Network Code, and contributions to the Petroleum Industry Act.
He has also served as Managing Director of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company and Managing Director of the Nigerian Gas Company, and chaired boards of entities including the West African Gas Pipeline Company, Nigeria LNG subsidiaries and NNPC Retail. His project portfolio includes the Escravos–Lagos Pipeline Expansion, the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano Gas Pipeline and Nigeria LNG Train 7, while he represented Nigeria in international engagements such as the Gas Exporting Countries Forum and the West African Gas Pipeline Authority.
He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers, is registered with COREN, and holds a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
