- Northern Youth Council advises against renewing Tompolo’s pipeline surveillance contract, citing controversy, failure to address crisis, and fallen soldiers’ sacrifice
- NYCN urges Tinubu’s administration to prevent tensions, criticizes contract award to Tompolo for not increasing oil production
The Northern Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has urged President Bola Tinubu’s administration not to renew the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to ex-militant leader Chief Ekpemupolo Government, also known as Tompolo.
The advice was given in a statement signed by the group’s Secretary General, Mustapha Hassan, on Sunday in Kaduna.
According to Hassan, Nigeria is on the verge of a crisis, and everything that can be done to prevent increased tensions in the country should be done.
He went on to say that the multibillion-naira contract awarded to Tompolo by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been mired in controversy, failing to address the crisis it was supposed to address.
Top military brasses have frowned at how the government of Nigeria resorted to awarding contracts to someone who should ordinarily be behind bars for the economic mayhem caused in the Niger Delta region between 2016 and 2018.”
Beyond the economic sabotage, the federal government recorded loss of military personnel as well as equipment. The award of the surveillance contract to Tompolo became a mockery for the valour of the fallen soldiers and reward of their families’ pains.
Secondly, the recent scramble for the contract by the ex- militant leaders in the Niger Delta region is mainly because of the notion that if Tompolo’s rascality can be rewarded by the Federal Government, they should all be carried along. We recall that when the pipelines surveillance contract was handled by Ocean Marine of Late Capt Hosa Okubor, these myriad issues were non-existent chiefly because they were seen as competent hands without blemish.
In the same vein, it is obvious to Nigerians that there is no significant rise in the oil production quantum since this contract was awarded to Tompolo. The successes being celebrated were the normal production rates of the country before the mayhem of the Niger Delta Avengers, the statement read in part.
Remember that the Buhari administration awarded a contract to Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, a company owned by Tompolo, in order to reduce the frequency of attacks on oil and gas pipelines in the Niger Delta region.