Mustapha Abdullahi, the director-general of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), is in the custody in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged money laundering offences involving more than N500 billion.
The Witness gathered that Abdullahi was arrested in Abuja on Wednesday.
Dele Oyewale, spokesperson for the EFCC, was unavailable for comments at the time of filing this report.
In October 2023, President Bola Tinubu appointed Abdullahi as the director-general and chief executive officer of the commission.
Before his appointment, Abdullahi had spent more than a decade working with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
In December 2025, the Network Against Corruption and Drug Trafficking (NACAT), a civil society organisation, petitioned President Tinubu, the EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over alleged corruption within the commission.
The group accused the ECN DG of masterminding what it described as a “well-coordinated and brazen scheme” involving the alleged illegal award and payment of solar streetlight contracts worth hundreds of millions of naira to five companies allegedly linked to the same individuals.
According to the CSO, the five companies were all registered within one week between late October and early November 2023, shared similar addresses in Abuja, and allegedly had the same directors.
NACAT further alleged that the contracts violated Nigeria’s procurement laws, describing the development as a betrayal of public trust.