Amalgamated Arewa Youth Groups protest the awarding of pipeline protection contract to Tompolo

MEMBERS of the Amalgamated Arewa Youth Groups (AAYG) have held a demonstration in Abuja to protest the awarding of an oil pipeline protection contract to Niger Delta militant leader Government Ekpemupolo popularly known as Tompolo.

Last week, Tompolo was awarded a contract by the federal government to protect oil pipelines in a dramatic reversal of policy that had seen him declared a wanted man. Up until then, Tompolo was declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as he was due to face charges relating to pipeline protection contracts he was awarded by the government of former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

Tompolo, the commander of the defunct Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (Mend), subsequently went into hiding to avoid arrest from the government. However, in a bid to avoid an escalation of violence on the Niger Delta, the federal government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) agreed to engage Tompolo to end illegal bunkering, illegal refining and oil theft in the area.

Objecting to the development, the AAYG said the contract would cost N4bn monthly from the national treasury and the group subsequently called for the sacking of Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum. Comrade Victor Duniya, the AAYG spokesman, said their protest was just to register their displeasure over the contract.

He added: “We are aware that Tomopolo and his boys are major beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, 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 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.

“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 the inability of our armed forces and other security agencies to curtail the menace or possible internal collusion, which  has led to the outsourcing of their jobs to private citizens."

Also, the AAYG lamented the fact that to date, the Nigerian government is sponsoring ex-agitators to world-class universities, training them in different skills acquisitions and empowering their businesses. They also noted that the Amnesty Office is even being funded from Nigeria’s annual budget and yet the restiveness in the region has remained unabated.

Comrade Dunayi added: “Since the government has realised 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 organise youths in other geo-political 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 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, as 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 over the role he 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."