By John Owen Nwachukwu The Amalgamated Arewa Youth Groups has kicked against the awarding of the pipeline surveillance contract to Chief...
By John Owen Nwachukwu
The Amalgamated Arewa Youth Groups has kicked against the
awarding of the pipeline surveillance contract to Chief Government Ekpemupolo,
popularly known as Tompolo.
The contract would cost N4 billion monthly from the national
treasury and the group, during a mass protest in Abuja on Monday, called for
the sack of Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum.
Reports emerged last weekend about the award of the pipeline
surveillance contract to Tompolo, a former leader of the Movement for the
Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND.
Addressing newsmen at the protest, the northern group said
the protest was just to register their displeasure over the contract.
“We are aware that Tomopolo and his boys are major
beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Program, wherein the Federal
Government, under the leadership of the late Umaru Musa Yar’adua extended same
to the restive youths of the Niger Delta,” the group’s spokesman, Comrade
Victor Duniya, said.
The group lamented that to date, the Nigerian government is
sponsoring ex-agitators to world-class universities, training them in different
skills acquisitions, and empowering their businesses, noting that the Amnesty
Office is even being funded from Nigeria’s annual budget and yet the
restiveness in the region has remained unabated.
“The implication of the awarded contract is that a private
citizen like Tompolo will be allowed to handle not just light but sophisticated
weapons to be able to wade off possible attacks from vicious oil bunkering
cartels,” he continued.
“This is coming at a time our region is bleeding profusely
due to the activities of terrorist elements, yet, our youths who are more than
willing to die for the sake of the country are not allowed to personally
acquire light arms to defend their communities, not to even talk of getting
significant support from the Federal Government.
“Our group attributes the increasing bunkering and the
subsequent award of the contentious contract to either inability of our armed
forces and other security agencies to curtail the menace or possible internal
collusion. This has led to the outsourcing of their jobs to private citizens.
“Since the government has realized how incompetent the
service chiefs are and now has trust in local solutions, we wish to call on
President Buhari to immediately set up a mechanism to organize youths in other
geopolitical zones into a security cluster and give them necessary support so
that they can bring peace to their various region.
“While heading to this place, our attention was drawn to a
statement attributed to the House of Representatives candidate of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) for Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency in Ondo
State, Donald Ojogo, wherein he berated our group’s patriotic stand on the
matter of the contract. We understand September will soon be here, and he will
be expected to spend so much during campaigns in order to actualize his dream.
“He feels attacking us will position him to benefit from
free money that has been given to Niger Delta youths, which his constituency is
among. We trust the enlightened people of Ondo, they won’t allow a corporate
beggar and a man who is ignorant of the principle of Federal Character, to lead
them. We shall be here to empathize with him after the election.
“We are not here to officially protest against the awarded
contract, this gathering in our minimal number is to register our displeasure
over it, we have issued seven days ultimatum to the government to terminate the
contract or better still shut down the Amnesty Office. Niger Delta Youths
alone, can’t have the two. We are all stakeholders in the Nigeria project too.
“We have equally called on Mr. President to sack Timipre
Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Upstream, over the role they played
in the contract procedures as widely published in national media.
“At the expiration of our ultimatum, we shall be here
effective from Monday to paralyze activities in the towers until our demands
are met. “
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