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–Pix(above): GCEO, NNPCL, Mele Kyari
The Senate of the National Assembly has summoned the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Mele Kyari, over a N48bn pipeline surveillance contract awarded to stakeholders in the Niger Delta region.
Summoning Kyari through the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, the Committee Chairman, Senator Ayo Akinyelure (PDP – Ondo Central), said, essentially, the GCEO was being invited on the heel of a mounting fear of a group likely to sabotage the contract, thus rendering useless, all efforts of the oil agency in effectively securing the nation’s pipelines in Niger Delta.
He said, “The GCEO of the NNPCL is hereby summoned by the Senate Committee on Ethics Privileges and Public Petitions (to appear before this committee) on January 25.
Speaking at a Senate seession during the week, Sen Akinyelure said, “the GCEO of the NNPCL was being summoned to the Senate to come and assure the Isoko people that the agency would do the needful to avoid economic sabotage by the aggrieved youths of the area.
“We want him to come and assure Nigerians that he would do the needful to calm down the youths so that they will not engage in further pipeline vandalism.”
Recall that the pipeline surveillance contract was awarded by the Federal Government to Global West Vessel Specialist Limited, a private maritime security firm founded by Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, an erstwhile Commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
According to the contract details, the Tompolo-owned firm was expected to protect all oil pipelines in nearly all the states of the Niger Delta in collaboration with other major stakeholders in the oil producing communities in the region.
In the main, Tompolo is expected to carry out the N4billion-per month contract that covers Delta, Ondo, Imo, Rivers and some parts of Bayelsa State in collaboration with major tribes along the communities that host the oil pipelines.
However, the Isoko Ethnic Nationality has petitioned the Senate alleging that their young men were not being carried along in the multi-billion naira project.
The Isoko nationality under the auspices of the Interested Isoko Youth Groups, through a petition sent to the Senate on their behalf by Stanley Okonmah, said they were completely marginalised in the contract award.
The group requested the Senate to probe the award of the contract and prevail on the NNPCL’s management to award a fresh contract to a company owned by an Isoko person.
It urged the Senate to look into the matter and urged the Minister of Petroleum Resources and the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to correct the anomaly.
They want the NNPCL to award the pipeline surveillance contract to a company to be chosen by stakeholders of Isoko nation.
The State Online recalls that the pipeline surveillance contract was awarded by the Federal Government to Global West Vessel Specialist Limited, a private maritime security firm founded by Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, an erstwhile Commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
However, the Isoko Ethnic Nationality has petitioned the Senate alleging that their young men were not being carried along in the multi-billion naira project.
Earlier, the leadership of the Isoko youths had told the panel that since oil was discovered in their land and pipelines installed there in 1958, no case of vandalism had been recorded in the area till date.
They said, “One of our communities produces 53,000 barrels of crude oil per day. We also have other areas that produce 15,000 barrels every day.
“For over sixty four years after crude oil was discovered in our land, we cannot point to any meaningful development or any Federal Government presence in the oil bearing communities in our area.
“It is very sad that a multi-billion naira pipeline surveillance projects were awarded to stakeholders in the Niger Delta region and all the ethnic groups in the region were represented and accorded due recognition.
“We are, however, saddened by the fact that the Isoko nation was sidelined in the project while the Ijaw, the Itsekiri, the Kalabari nation, among others, were being carried along.
“The contract for the Isoko nation was given to a firm owned by an Urhobo man, not an Isoko person. Meanwhile, the Urhobo nation has its own contract awarded to them.
“Why should the project meant for the Isoko people be given to a firm owned by another ethnic group to execute?
“It is sad that we have to travel all the way to Abuja to come and beg for a contract which was freely given to other ethnic groups when the Isoko nation alone is producing over 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
“Since crude oil exploration started in Nigeria till date, even at the peak of agitations and restiveness in the country, we have never been involved in pipeline vandalism.”
Following this, “the committee was prompted to show empathy to the group by summoning the NNPCL Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, to come here on January 25 so that he would assure Nigerians that the youths also deserved to be part of the pipelines surveillance projects, to allow peace reign,” Akinyelure emphasized./SHARE THIS