A group, Strategic Communications Centre for Defence and Security (SCCDC), has said that fake stories being published against the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL), and particularly the Chief Group Executive Officer (CGEO), Bayo Ojulari, are being sponsored by opposition politicians and other disgruntled stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.

The group also said a top management officer of NNPCL who is desperate to be appointed as the GCEO of the Company is in bed with the unscrupulous elements and therefore responsible for all the plots to tarnish the image of the organization, by extension, get at President Bola Tinubu and his administration.

An online newspaper on Sunday published a story with the title- “NNPC boss Ojulari charters private Jets for Brazil trip two months after luxury Rwanda retreat,” which alleged that NNPCL, under the leadership of its Group Chief Executive Officer, Bashir Ojulari, chartered private jets for a trip to Brazil. While saying that ‘details of the trip’ were not fully known,’ the story added that the trip comes barely two months after the same platform wrote a story on Ojulari’s Kigali travel.

Part of the story said- “Just two months after the extravagant Kigali retreat, NNPC management boss has chartered private jets to a trip to Brazil,” a top source said.Nigerian cultural tourism packages. Sources confirmed that at least five private jets were arranged to convey board members and top management to Kigali. The trip, they said, was coordinated by Abdullahi Bashir-Haske, founder of AA & R Investment Group and son-in-law to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,” the story said.

But in a reaction, SCCDS said the story was not only false, but maliciously scripted, as part of the ongoing attempts to get at President Bola Tinubu through mudslinging of patriotic citizens he painstakingly fished out and appointed to manage strategic national assets and utilities.

The national Director of SCCDS, Bonaventure Melah, while addressing some journalists in Abuja said, Bayo Ojulari, the NNPCL boss did not travel to Brazil but is attending to serious issues on how to reposition the Oil Company.

He accused a top management officer of NNPCL of masterminding all the false stories against Ojulari and called President to intervene and bring the dangerous activities of the traitors to a halt, while also decrying what he described as gutter journalism by all-comers, who he said have invaded the noble profession, thereby making journalist look like hirelings.

“I have just read a story by an online newspaper, alleging that Bayo Ojulari chartered planes that took him and others to Brazil. Our checks reveal that this story is not only false but a malicious attempt to mudsling the NNPCL boss and in the process, diminish the great works being done by President Bola Tinubu.

“Our checks have revealed that Bayo Ojulari is in Nigeria and not in Brazil. We were also told that the NNPCL boss is fully booked this week with serious management engagements as he is neck deep working on the mandate handed to him by the President and his personal targets to reform and reposition NNPCL.

“Like the others, this latest concoction, is the handiwork of a top management staff of NNPCL who is working with opposition and some other stakeholders who are facing probe for various allegations of sharp practices in the past. They are now fighting back, using the top management officer who was part of the plundering of the Company and wants to scuttle the investigations.

“The fake news is another shouting evidence of the fact that, there is an agenda to continuously feed the public with deliberate and sustained lies against NNPCL and its new management, especially the person of Bayo Ojulari,” Bonaventure Melah said.

According to him, writing fake reports that target NNPCL and some other strategic institutions of the federal government, has become an agenda for for politicians in their desperate drive for regime change in 2027.

“For some obvious reasons, it has now become an all-comers attraction to lie on the bed, conjure whatever gibberish on NNPCL and publish it, taking advantage of social media and the worldwide web.

“Taking advantage of social media and the bastardization of journalism, even people who have no idea of what the 5Ws and 1H mean, are now parading themselves as journalists, and can write whatever they are told to, without fact-checking or a care on the injuries their false narratives can cause.

“The latest of such falsehood was published today, Sunday, August 24, 2025 by an online platform that ordinarily should be respected, if not for anything, at least for being one of the pioneer blogs in Nigeria.

“But while the so called exclusive story is currently trending online, truth is that the NNPCL boss is in Nigeria, fully engaged with activities geared towards achieving both the mandate handed to him by his employer- President Bola Tinubu and the target he set for himself- to reform the Nigerian oil and gas sub-sectors, make them fully self-sufficient, produce petrol and others products for local consumption and export, stand shoulder to shoulder with global competitors and make profit for the overall well-being of Nigeria and her citizens.

“It may be necessary to recall here that since Bayo Ojulari assumed office as the CEO of NNPCL less than five months ago, there have been several false stories concocted and spread out against him. While one can perceive the smell of beer on some of the stories, the authors of the others, easily leave traces of their sponsors who are either politicians targeting to get at President Tinubu through his high profile employees or disgruntled stakeholders, who, before this time, have been helping themselves with our Commonwealth and are now answering questions from operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other sister agencies.

“The writers of the stories and their sponsors seem to forget that President Tinubu has his eyes on all of the people he appointed into strategic leadership positions.

“Maybe we need to remind us that the President and his ‘projects implementation team’ are always in the know, where the ‘boys’ are, everyday and all the times.

“It therefore serves only as salad for mere public entertainment and satisfaction of equally jaundiced minds, to write voodoo stories meant for movie patrons and expect reasonable people to believe it,” Melah said.

He commended the NNPCL boss to keep his focus on his target goals and ensure he delivers on the mandate of President Bola Tinubu, assuring that patriotic citizens are ready at all times to defend him and his management, as long as they remain on the right track.