Arewa Youths Protest, Demand Cancellation Of Tompolo’s Pipeline Surveillance Contract

• Kazeem Badmus

Members of Northern Youth Advocacy for Good Governance Initiative and Arewa Youth Forum on Monday, staged a protest at the Headquarters of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in Abuja, demanding the cancellation of the Pipeline Surveillance Contract awarded to Tantita Security, Pipeline Surveillance Contract awarded to Tantita Security, owned by the government of Ekpemupolo popularly known as Tompolo.

The protesters who carried placards, OSUN DEFENDER gathered, defied the presence of security operatives deployed to guard the facility as they called on President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to exercise caution in renewing the contract in view of wanton financial malfeasance that has plagued the contract.

Some of the inscriptions on their placards read: ‘Tompolo’s Pipeline Surveillance is a Fraud’, ‘Sack and Probe Mele Kyari Now’, ‘NNPC Now an Osusu Ministry’, among others.

The President, of Arewa Youth Congress, Comrade Musa Adebayo, who read the statement jointly signed by the President, of Northern Youth Advocacy for Good Governance Initiative, Comrade Usman Saidu, said there was no significant rise in the oil production quantum since the contract was awarded to Tompolo, adding that the successes being celebrated were normal production rates before the mayhem of the Niger Delta Avengers.

According to him, “It is hence a major matter of concern how much effort is being made to re-award the pipeline surveillance contracts to an ex-Militant General despite the tension, financial malfeasance, disinformation and abnormalities that are inherent in the contract.

“We expect that the federal government’s interest should be centred on knowing the true cost of the pipeline surveillance contract as awarded as fresh facts and figures continue to emerge in the media.

“We also expect the Federal government to suspend the NNPCL Group Chief Executive, Mele Kolo Kyari, Executive Vice President (Upstream), Adokye Tombomieye, the Managing Director, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) Ali Muhammed Zahra and Managing Director, National Petroleum Investment Management Services and Bala Wunti, and thoroughly investigate them for their roles in the contracts for the security and maintenance of pipeline infrastructure and ancillary facilities for Eastern and Western corridors, and the establishment of a project management office for an unknown company (Inter-Atlas Limited ), which cost the Federal government almost $1 billion in the last one year.

“As concerned citizens, we should understand that the country is too tensed to allow for any auction that may breed internal turmoil and more controversies within the ranks of its citizenry, and we believe that awarding contracts to someone who should ordinarily be behind bars for the economic mayhem caused in the Niger Delta region between 2016 and 2018 is total anti-peace and anti-development.”

Adebayo said they will continue to occupy the premises until their demands are met.