NLNG Funds Row Deepens as Uzodimma Faces Fresh Scrutiny

A fresh power struggle is now ripping through the APC’s inner circle, with claims that NLNG-linked funds, a governors’ finance structure and Wale Edun’s exit are all tied to the same opaque money trail. SaharaReporters reported that a source said, “It was NLNG funds that were given to the Imo governor. This was partly why…

Atlantic Post

May 11, 2026

3–5 minutes

APC, Bola Tinubu, Hope Uzodimma, NLNG, Progressive Governors Forum, Wale Edun

The latest storm inside Nigeria’s ruling elite is now larger than a simple governors’ quarrel. It sits at the intersection of campaign finance, factional warfare, and the quiet but brutal contest for control of the APC’s 2027 political machinery.

SaharaReporters said unnamed sources claimed that NLNG-linked funds were released to Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma and later moved into the Progressive Governors Forum financial structure, with one source saying,

“It was NLNG funds that were given to the Imo governor. This was partly why the finance minister, Wale Edun, was removed.”

That allegation remains unverified, but it has landed in a political environment already primed for suspicion and mistrust.

What gives the story its force is not just the money claim, but the wider report that Tinubu himself had to step in after the governors’ dispute escalated.

THEWILL reported that the President intervened in a feud over alleged misappropriation of more than N800 billion said to have been raised by APC governors for his re-election campaign, while Premium Times reported that governors at an extraordinary Abuja meeting allegedly moved to replace Uzodimma with Peter Mbah as chairman of the forum.

Those reports describe a forum split between camps, one accusing Uzodimma of opaque financial control and the other insisting the matter was being weaponised for political gain.

Yet the official response from the PGF has been blunt and categorical. On 8 May 2026, the forum’s Director General, Folorunsho Aluko, dismissed the removal story as “false and misleading”, adding that no meeting was held and that Uzodimma remains chairman.

The PGF statement also insisted that “The Forum remains united, focused, and committed to its responsibilities”, and urged the public and the media to disregard the report entirely.

That denial matters because it shows the fight is now being played out on two tracks at once, through media leaks on one hand and formal rebuttals on the other.

Edun’s name was dragged into the controversy because the alleged money trail was linked to the Finance Ministry. But the official record tells a different story about his exit.

The State House said Edun resigned, not that he was sacked, and that he did so after battling ill health. It quoted his letter to the President, in which he wrote,

“It has been a pleasure and privilege to serve your administration and the Renewed Hope Agenda.”

The same State House statement said he submitted his resignation on his 70th birthday and paid a valedictory visit to Tinubu before leaving office.

Reuters also reported the cabinet reshuffle that removed Edun from the ministry and confirmed the change was announced by the President’s office.

That is why the alleged link between the governors’ fund row and Edun’s departure should be treated with caution. The presidency’s public explanation for his exit was health related, not political punishment, and the official wording leaves no room for a confirmed scandal narrative.

Still, the timing feeds suspicion. Edun was still chairing FAAC in March 2026, when the Finance Ministry said N1.894 trillion was shared among the federal, state and local tiers of government, which shows he remained fully active in the fiscal machinery only weeks before his resignation.

In a political system where every exit is read through the lens of power and patronage, timing alone can become ammunition.

The deeper issue is what this reveals about the APC’s internal order. If the reports are accurate, then the party’s governors were not merely quarrelling over a chairman. They were fighting over who controls a campaign structure, who answers for the money, and who gets to define loyalty to Tinubu ahead of 2027.

If the denials are correct, then the party is still suffering from a dangerous information war in which anonymous claims, factional briefings and counter-statements are being used to test strength and shape perception.

Either way, the row shows a governing party struggling to keep its money politics, state power and succession battle in one piece.

For now, the only safe conclusion is that the story is still developing and many of its sharpest claims remain allegations. But the political damage is already visible.

Uzodimma has been forced to fight for legitimacy inside his own governors’ bloc, the PGF has had to deny an embarrassing leadership rebellion, and Edun’s departure has been pulled into a narrative the presidency itself has not endorsed.

In Abuja, that is how a money dispute becomes a power crisis, and how a power crisis starts to look like an early rehearsal for 2027.