Senate summons NNPCL executive over N48 billion Tompolo deal

Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, was called before the Senate on Friday as a result of the N48 billion pipeline surveillance contract that was given to Niger Delta stakeholders by the committee overseeing ethics, privileges, and public petitions.

Government Ekpemupolo, commonly known as Tompolo, a former Commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, created Global West Vessel Specialist Limited, a private marine security company, and was given the contract for pipeline surveillance by the Federal Government.

In partnership with other significant stakeholders in the oil-producing villages in the area, the Tompolo-owned company was intended to safeguard the oil pipelines that crossed almost all of the Niger Delta states.

In partnership with significant tribes along the areas where the oil pipelines are located, Tompolo is anticipated to carry out the N4 billion monthly contract that spans Delta, Ondo, Imo, Rivers, and some portions of Bayelsa State in particular.
The Isoko Community, on the other hand, has petitioned the Senate, claiming that their young men were not included in the multi-billion naira project.

Through a petition addressed to the Senate on their behalf by Stanley Okonmah, the Isoko people, working under the aegis of Interested Isoko Youth Groups, claimed they had been utterly disregarded in the contract award.

The Isoko ethnic nationality asked the Senate to look into the contract's award and persuade NNPCL management to give a new contract to a business controlled by an Isoko individual. The citizens specifically encouraged the Senate to investigate the situation and the Minister of Petroleum Resources and Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL to fix the inconsistencies.

They wanted the Isoko nation's stakeholders to select the company that would receive the pipeline surveillance contract from the NNPCL.

Senator Ayo Akinyelure, the chairman of the Senate panel, stated that the GCEO of the NNPCL was thus called to the Senate in order to come and reassure the Isoko people that the agency would take the necessary action to prevent economic sabotage by the area's irate youths.

He said, “The GCEO of the NNPCL is hereby summoned by the Senate Committee on Ethics Privileges and Public Petitions on January 25. We want him to come and assure Nigerians that he would do the needful to calm down the youths so that they will not engage in pipeline vandalism.”
The panel was previously informed by the Isoko youth leadership that since oil was discovered on their property and pipelines were built there in 1958, no vandalism incidents have been reported in the area to date.


They said, “One of our communities produces 53,000 barrels of crude oil per day. We also have other areas produce 15,000 barrels each every day.
“Fifty-three years after crude oil was discovered in our land, we cannot point to any meaningful development or any Federal Government presence in the oil-bearing communities in our area. It is very sad that a multi-billion-naira pipeline surveillance projects were awarded to stakeholders in the Niger Delta region and all the ethnic groups in the region were represented and accorded due recognition.
“We are, however, saddened by the fact that the Isoko nation was sadlined in the project while the Ijaw, the Itsekiri, the Calabari nation among others were being carried along.
“The contract for the Isoko nation was given to a firm owned by an Urhobo man not an Isoko person. Meanwhile, the Urhobo nation has their own contract awarded to them.
“Why should the project meant for the Isoko people be given to a firm owned by another ethnic group to execute? It is sad that we have to travel to Abuja to come and beg for a contract which was freely given to other ethnic groups when the Isoko nation alone is producing over 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Since crude oil exploration started in Nigeria till date, even at the peak of agitations and restiveness in the country, we have never involved in pipeline vandalism.”

References
Punchng, 'Senate summons NNPCL boss over N48bn Tompolo contract' (online, 2022) <https://punchng.com/senate-summons-nnpcl-boss-over-n48bn-tompolo-contract/>.