…Calls for Sylva, Kyari, others’ removal
A group, Amalgamated Arewa Youth Groups yesterday kicked against the award of the pipeline surveillance contract to an ex-militant leader of the Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta, (MEND) Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo by the Federal Government.
The group, in a statement by its Spokesman, Comrade Victor Duniya, said it received the news of the award of a pipeline surveillance contract worth over N4bn monthly by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Ltd to Tompolo with rude shock. According to him, the group gathered that the said contract was meant to end illegal bunkering, illegal refining, and other forms of oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
Consequently, the group called for the removal of Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, and Group Executive Director of the NNPC Limited, Upstream, Engr. Adokiye Tombomelye, for their alleged involvement in the award of the contract to the ex-militant leader. The group also demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari sack others involved in promoting ethnic and regional interest over national interest, and also the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, for using his office to reward criminality and treasonable tendencies instead of patriotism.
The statement further stated that “the Chief of Defence Staff and the Service Chiefs be sacked since they cannot use the instrument of coercion at their disposal to end oil bunkering in the Niger-Delta.
The group threatened “to take both physical (protest) and legal action if the NNPC Ltd and the Federal Government failed to revoke the awarded contract to Tompolo’s firm in the next seven (7) days”.
