The leadership of former Niger Delta agitators and the Niger Delta Stakeholders Forum have called on the Federal Government to quickly review the award of the pipeline surveillance contract.
The ex-agitators, including General Shoot-at-Sight, Gen. Boy-Loaf, and others, urged the President Bola Tinubu-led government not to narrow the award of the contract to only one individual.
They specifically said the pipeline surveillance jobs should be awarded to different leaders from each of the nine Niger Delta states.
The former agitators and NDSF made the call at the palace of the Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom, King Ateke Tom, after a meeting of the agitators, members’ forum and other stakeholders on Wednesday.
One of the leaders, General Shoot-at-Sight while speaking, urged the President to discountenance plans to implement the review of the contract after the 2027 elections, describing the arrangement as deceitful.
He noted that the different states have qualified leaders and structures to provide pipeline security adequately, adding that the idea of handing the whole job to only one person is demeaning to other agitators who fought for the freedom of the region.
“We were doing this job state by state under President Goodluck Jonathan. The next president came, and he made it political and cancelled it.
“We have been on this matter for years. Last year, we heard that the work would be split state by state before the election. But till now, we have not seen anything.
“When we did disarmament in 2009, Nigeria’s oil production increased, because the contract was split. Since they gave this job to only one person, the oil production has not increased again.
“We are saying that the contact should be split. Then, we had a quota for employment in each state. Now we see that the job is now for politicians and that is not the original design,” General Shoot-at-Sigjt stated.
In his remarks, Gen. Boy-Loaf urged the president to spread out the contract to win the total support of the former agitators and stakeholders of the region during the 2027 election.
He said, “If the President really wants to achieve what he wants in 2027, he has to show love, because only one person cannot deliver. Nobody should deceive him.”
Meanwhile, the Secretary General of NDSF, Theophilus Alaye, who addressed the press after the meeting, said the call was to ensure continued peace and stability in the Niger Delta region.
Alaye, who is President of the Ijaw Youth Council, said stakeholders were not aware of any meeting with Tinubu, where it was agreed that the decentralisation of the surveillance job should come after the forthcoming elections.
He dismissed the report that the leaders had met with the president and resolved that decentralisation should come after the election, insisting that the process should be implemented immediately.
“These leaders have with Mr President, before this time and agreed that this pipeline is a large job and should be decentralised on a state basis and that is the position of the stakeholders of the entire Niger Delta.
“Giving the contract to one person is not in the interest of the Niger Delta because we need the Niger Delta where investors will come, so that our youth can have job opportunities. We want this done immediately.
“We know very well that for the interest of Mr President’s governing Nigeria in peace and also having an increase in oil production from its current level to maybe 2.5 million barrels per day, he needs to decentralise it. It’s in the interest of Mr President and the interest of the people of the Niger Delta,” Alaye stated
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