Some groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta region on Sunday called on President Bola Tinubu to look into the oil pipeline surveillance contract awarded to a company allegedly owned by former militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (well known as Tompolo).
The demand came less than two weeks after Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara criticised the Federal Government for awarding the oil pipeline surveillance contract in the Niger Delta to a single company and individual, a situation that is generating tension in the region.
In separate statements in Warri, Delta State, the Niger Delta organisations under the aegis of Frontiers of Isoko Nation Advancement (FINA) and Defenders of Urhobo Nation (DUN) said that extension of the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to Tompolo would be massively resisted.
FINA’s Coordinator, Raphael Sunny Egbuwoku called on President Tinubu to look into the agitation.
He said: “It is crucial for President Tinubu, as the leader of our great nation, to address this issue and ensure the proper apportioning of pipeline surveillance contracts among leaders and stakeholders in the Niger Delta”.
DUN’s spokesperson, Comrade Anthony Etineruba also said that resistance to the pro-Tompolo contract is a battle of “no retreat, no surrender”.
He said: “We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to decentralize the pipeline surveillance contract, and have it shared across the Niger Delta states. The extension of the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to Chief Government Ekpemupolo will be massively resisted as the monopoly by Tompolo can no longer be tolerated.
“It is an affront to other leaders in the Niger Delta who have equal competence and stakes for Tompolo to continually be given the pipeline surveillance contract to the detriment of all. We call for the cancellation of the contract extension to Tompolo for another three months”.
