The Presidency on Sunday defended the
yearly award of about N5.6bn contracts to former Niger Delta militants
to protect oil pipelines. It said the contract was in the interest of
the nation.
Speaking in a telephone interview with
our correspondent, the Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan
on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said Nigeria had benefited immensely
from
the exercise.
He said that the volume of crude oil being produced in the country had increased tremendously since the exercise commenced.
A Wall Street Journal report
last week focused on the yearly payment of about N5.6bn to former
Niger-Delta war-lords for guarding the oil pipelines in the restive
region.
The report gave a break-down of the
militants involved in the contracts as ‘General’ Government Tompolo
Ekpumopolo,N3.6bn; Asari Dokubo, 1.44bn; ‘General’ Ateke Toms,N560m and
‘General’ Ebikabowei Boyloaf Victor Ben, N560m.
While defending the government action,
which Okupe said was done by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, he said, “Since this exercise began, the crude oil
production has jumped from 1.8mbpd to 2.6mbpd.
“That is an increment of over $700m
income per day to the government. So, when you compare what was paid
to get this benefit, it pales into insignificance.”
He said the issue of pipeline and their safety were matters of national security and should not be politicised.
Okupe said it was on record that oil
majors were already engaged in community protection of pipelines and
there was no better way to secure the pipelines than to employ members
of the community within the community were built.
Moreover, he said the transaction for
the contracts were “with NNPC and corporate organisations who have the
abilities to protect the pipelines and the nation is enjoying the
benefits.”
But the Congress for Progressive Change
in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin,
argued that the Jonathan regime had earlier in the year, awarded the
contract for the nation’s maritime security to Global West Vessel
Specialist Agency, a private firm owned by Ekpumopolo.
It said that the reason given by the
Federal Government for its action “is the inability to ‘source’ the
$103m needed to invest over a 10-year period on a Project expected to
garner N124bn into the nation’s coffers, generate 1,375 direct jobs and
1,620 indirect jobs.”
It also added a contract of an
undisclosed sum was awarded in July 2012 to the same company owned by
Tompolo for the supply of 20 patrol boats to the Nigerian Navy.
The opposition party said it “considers
these actions as grave financial imprudence by a regime that seems not
to ‘give a damn’ if the nation totters.”
It asked the government to say if the
regime was giving tacit approval to militancy as legitimate occupation
in the country, wondering why the Niger-Delta insurgency was never known
to Nigerians during the military regimes.
The CPC appealed to the National Assembly to urgently look at the contracts and take a decisive action on them.
Okupe, however, said the CPC was just being mischievous in its actions.
-Punch
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...Naija...dis one pass patty abeg!
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