Group asks Buhari to revoke Tompolo’s pipeline contract.
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| BUHARI |
An
anti-corruption group, Civil Society Network Against Corruption, has
called on President Muhammadu Buhari to revoke the oil pipeline
protection contract awarded to a company linked to a former Niger Delta
militant, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo.
In a June
4, 2015 letter by its Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, and addressed to
President Buhari, the group said despite the whooping sum of $103m paid
to Tompolo by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the nation’s
pipelines remained insecure.
CSNAC,
which made a copy of the letter available to journalists on Sunday, said
since Tompolo took over the security of the pipelines, crude oil theft
had increased from 250,000 barrels per day, before the contract, to
400,000 barrels per day.
The
statement read in part, “Sometime in 2012, the President Goodluck
Jonathan administration signed a $103m contract with Global West Vessel
Specialist Agency Ltd, a company linked to the ex-militant leader of the
Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo
alias Tompolo, to protect the nation’s maritime areas and stop piracy
and oil theft.
“However,
constitutionally, the Nigerian Navy is the primary government agency
saddled with the responsibility of safeguarding the territorial
integrity and securing the borders of the Federation on the sea.
“It is
rather unfortunate that despite the huge amount of money wrongly
expended on the said contract yearly, the water ways are still largely
insecure and thousands of barrels of crude oil are still lost daily in
oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
“As a
matter of fact, crude oil theft increased from 250,000 barrels/day
before the contract to 400,000 barrels/day since the ceding of Nigeria’s
territorial water to a private company without any record of experience
in similar service.”
CSNAC,
described as a coalition of over 150 anti-corruption organisations, also
referred to a newspaper report quoting the pioneer chairman of the
Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr. Ahmed Tijani
Ramalan, as saying that the agency pays N1.5bn monthly to Tompolo for
the said contract.
Suraju stated in its letter to the President, “In the
aforementioned publication, it was reported that some ex Niger-Delta
militants have also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to review the
multi-million dollar oil pipeline security contract awarded to
ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemukpolo, alias Tompolo, and other
ex-militants by the past administration. Coming under the aegis of The
National Coalition of Niger-Delta Ex-agitators, led by its National
President, Israel Akpodoro.”
The group therefore called on President Buhari to revoke the
contract and make the Nigerian Navy and other related government agency
to henceforth undertake the task.
The letter also read, “From the foregoing, it is settled that the
Nigerian Navy, in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, was
established to maintain security of the Federation and her waters.
“It is however improper delegation of duty to assign such an
enormous task to a private company instead of equipping the relevant
agencies to enable them carry out their constitutional role
effectively.”punch.
