Politics
ONDO State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), has criticised the Federal Government for permitting ‘non-state actors, to bear heavy assault weapons, querying the propriety of allowing some persons to bear arms while denying the same privilege to states and federating units with joint security outfits like the Amotekun Corps to strengthen their security apparatus.
Akeredolu stated this in a statement he signed yesterday and made available through his Chief Press Secretary, Richard Olatunde. Akeredolu, the chairman of Southwest Governors’ Forum as well as the Southern Governors’ Forum, condemned the decision of the Federal Government to award a contract for the protection of pipelines in the South-South to a private security company.
Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, had on Tuesday described as a right decision, its resolve to award the contract of pipelines surveillance to a company that a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, has interest in.
Kyari, who spoke at the 49th session of the State House briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said: “We need private contractors to man the right of way to these pipelines. We don’t have access to that and therefore, we put up a framework where contractors were selected through a tender process for people who can do it, not everyone can do it and Tompolo is just mentioned, we’re dealing with corporate entities. He may have interest in the company, we’re not dealing with Tompolo, but we know that he has interest in that company.”
But Akeredolu in his statement yesterday said state government-owned security outfits actually need permission to bear assault rifles and not non-state actors or private security firms.
In 2020, concerned about worsening insecurity in the Southwest geopolitical zone, governors of the six states inaugurated the Southwest security network codenamed Amotekun.
The Southeast governors followed suit in 2021 and inaugurated a regional security network known as Ebube Agu, but the Federal Government has denied both regional outfits a licence to bear arms.
Akeredolu, in the statement titled, ‘Who Actually Needs Weapon?’ said: “The news concerning the award of pipeline contracts to some individuals and private organisations by the Federal Government has been unsettling. More disquieting is the barely disguised hostility displayed against either the idea or the actual establishment of security outfits by some state governments to fill the widening gaps in the scope of security coverage noticeable nationally.
“The Federal Government, through the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), has been consistent in its refusal to accede to the request by some states to strengthen the complementary initiatives adopted to protect life and property. This is done in spite of the knowledge that the very issues, which necessitated the creation of these outfits support providing adequate weaponry. All attempts to persuade the Federal Government to look, critically, into the current security architecture have been rebuffed despite the manifest fundamental defects engendered by over-centralisation.
“It is, therefore, shocking to read that the Federal Government has maintained the award of the contract to ‘protect’ the country’s pipeline from vandals to private organisations. This story, if true, leaves a sour taste in the mouth. The NSA will, obviously, not advise the President to approve the award of a contract of such magnitude if the operators have not displayed sufficient capacity to checkmate the criminal activities of equally powerful groups.
“Consequently, it is safe to conclude that the Federal Government has, impliedly, permitted non-state actors to bear heavy assault weapons, while denying the same privilege to the states, the federating units.
“The award of contracts to private organisations to protect against the vandalisation of pipelines raises fundamental questions about the sincerity of the advisers of the Government on security issues. The open and seeming enthusiastic embrace of this oddity, despite the constant and consistent avowal of the readiness by the security agencies, in particular the Navy, to contain the pervasive and deepening crises of breaches and threats to life and property, attracts the charge of insincerity bordering, deplorably, on dubiety.
“If state governments, which are keenly desirous of protecting their citizens, establish ancillary security outfits and there has been pronounced reluctance, if not outright refusal, to consider permitting them to bear arms for the sole purpose of defence, granting private individuals and or organisations unfettered access to assault weapons suggests, curiously, deep-seated suspicion and distrust between the Federal Government and the presumed federating units.
“The engagement of private organisations to handle serious security challenges reinforces the belief that the whole defence architecture in the country needs an urgent overhaul. The Federal Government cannot be seen to be playing the Ostrich in this regard,” the statement concluded.
MEANWHILE, crude oil revenue fell by 29 per cent in the first quarter of 2022, according to statistics from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The CBN stated in its most recent economic and statistical report for the first quarter of 2022 that earnings from crude oil fell to N790 billion from N1.1 trillion in the previous quarter, which ran from October to December 2021.
The first quarter of 2022 saw a 17.1 per cent decline in Nigeria’s crude oil and gas revenues compared to the N956 billion earned during the same time in 2021. Oil revenue accounted for 38 per cent of total earnings in the first quarter of 2022, totaling N2 trillion, while non-oil revenue accounted for 62 per cent of total earnings, totaling N1.1 trillion, according to the report.
Nigeria earned N330 billion in January 2022. In February and March 2022, the country earned N199 billion and N261 billion, respectively. A further breakdown of earnings revealed that earnings from crude oil sales stood at N153 billion in the first quarter of 2022, compared to N234 billion and N412 billion in the fourth and first quarters of 2021, respectively.
NNPC boss, Kyari, on Tuesday, identified oil theft as a major reason for the drop in production, which ultimately led to low revenue. According to him, Nigeria loses 700,000 barrels of crude oil daily to oil theft. Kyari also alleged that highly placed Nigerians, including religious, community leaders and government officials, were fully involved in the crude oil theft on a grand scale.
REACTING to the report, the presidential flag-bearer of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has expressed sadness over the inability of the Federal Government to publicly name sponsors of terrorism and those stealing oil in the Niger Delta.
The former Anambra State governor, in a tweet on his Twitter handle, wondered why government was unable to summon the political will to name the criminal elements. Obi wrote: “I am struck and intrigued by the news report linking ‘highly placed’ Nigerians to oil theft. Same has been the case with financing insurgency and Boko Haram. When will FGN summon the political will to publicly name such persons?”
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has continued to receive kudos and knocks across the country over the recent N4 billion monthly surveillance contract award to ex-Niger Delta militant, Tompolo, to secure all oil facilities in the Niger Delta region.
While the Ijaws in Tamigbe community, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, described the award as a move to checkmate oil theft, which would certainly boost the nation’s economy, an activist, Comrade Derrick Oritsematosan Agberen, flayed the government for the contract, saying handing a pipeline surveillance contract to Tompolo is, to say the least, insensitive.
Speaking to newsmen yesterday in Asaba, spokesman for all Ijaw communities in Niger Delta, Comrade Stephen Akameyai Porthacourt, said the gesture would have multiplier effects for the nation’s economy. He called on all Ijaw and other oil producing communities to support the efforts of Tompolo and cooperate with him to ensure effective security of oil facilities to eradicate oil pipelines vandalism.
While admonishing his kinsmen to shun acts capable of painting the region in negative light, Porthacourt said meaningful development could only take place in a peaceful environment. He, however, appealed to government to provide schools, accessible road network and hospitals in riverine communities.
But Agberen, in statement made available to newsmen, said “the insensitive move by Federal Government to award pipeline security contract to individuals might spike another wave of insecurity in the oil rich Niger Delta region.
He said: “While this method might have worked in the past, it is very dangerous in recent times owing to the current wave of unprecedented insecurity sweeping across the whole country.
“I ask, of what use are the navy men, civil defence, police and other coercive apparatuses of the state if they cannot protect its oil pipelines? If they lack adequate personnel, why can’t their staffs be expanded?
“It is a pity that the Nigerian government cannot secure its mineral resources, and now relies on an individual or is he more powerful than the Nigerian government?
“If the Federal Government wanted the operations of pipelines surveillance to have been civil, why not get everybody involved rather than a single individual? The contract should have been fractured among communities and creeks in the riverine areas, that way, it will be so much easier to task and do the work and everyone will also have a sense of entitlement. This is because every ethnic group in Niger Delta would want to defend the pipelines that pass through their territory.”
-The Guardian
KN
Tags: Mele Kyari NNPC Richard Olatunde Rotimi Akeredolu
