Chief Operating Officer of Joint Ventures and Business Development at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Roland Ewubare, has resigned from the firm.
According to Punch, the COO resigned abruptly from the corporation on Wednesday morning, after occupying the position for barely a year.
Until his resignation, Ewubare had worked with the NNPC for five years heading several divisions of Nigeria’s oil company.
In June 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed Malam Mele Kolo Kyari as Group Managing Director (GMD) and eight Chief Operating Officers (COOs) including Ewubare but they all officially resumed duty on July 8 2019 after a formal hand over by the late and immediate past GMD, Maikanti Baru on July 7 2019.
Ewubare, who hails from Nigeria’s South-South region, worked as a close adviser to the late Baru.
In a message he sent to Punch on Friday, the former NNPC COO debunked claims that he resigned due to feud with the management of the corporation.
He said;
No feud at all. The GMD (Mele Kyari) is my very close friend and ally. He has been super supportive. I am leaving to return to my family in the United States. I have been in NNPC for five years mostly away from them. With the pandemic, I cannot travel to visit them and they cannot come to visit me. It is tough. At the core, I am a family man. Stepping down solely for personal family reasons. That is the truth.
He once served as Group General Manager National Petroleum Investments and Management Services, a Corporate Services (NAPIMS) and was later appointed as Chief Operating Officer Upstream before his most recent appointment as Chief Operating Officer Ventures.
Ewubare also served as the Managing Director of the Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), a seismic data acquisition company of NNPC based in Benin City in Edo State.
Before his sojourn in the energy sector, Ewubare served at the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission before resigning to take up the appointment in the NNPC.
