The youth council accused the Group Executive Director (Upstream) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Adokiye Tombomieye and the minister of state for petroleum resources of playing an ethnic game of pushing Isoko nation to the background.
As the multi-billion naira Niger Delta oil pipeline surveillance contract awarded to awarded to an ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemopolo (aka Tompolo), continues to generate controversy across the region, the Isoko National Youth Council (INYC), Delta state has raised the alarm of alleged shortchange and marginalization in the contract by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).
The youth council accused the Group Executive Director (Upstream) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Adokiye Tombomieye and the minister of state for petroleum resources of playing an ethnic game of pushing Isoko nation to the background.
In a petition addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, signed by the president of the Isoko National Youth Council (INYC), Matthew Edugbo through their counsel, Stanley Okonmah and Co, obtained by SaharaReporters, urged the presidency to as a matter of urgency and importance investigate and prosecute those found culpable in the matter altogether as a way of correcting the imbalance to avoid any breakdown of law and order.
While reminding the federal government not to take the people of Isoko for granted, especially with the past history of the people under the leadership of Fred Obe carrying out a revolution against the state, noted further that the NNPC management and the minister should know that the Isoko nation carries 28 percent of the oil facilities that service the Nigerian economy, hence as a matter of urgency the NNPC must reverse the contract to benefit the people of Isoko, most especially, as the duo of the NNPC Group Executive Director Upstream, and the Minister are both of Ijaw extraction who decided to award the contract to their kinsmen.
The youth council frowned at the total disregard and marginalisation of the people of Isoko in the process of awarding the contract job, with that of the Isoko nation going to other persons and warned against disrespecting and disregarding the contributions of the Isoko nation to the economy of the nation.
”As you are aware, Sometime in August 2022, a contract for the surveillance of the oil pipeline in the entire Niger Delta Region, was awarded to one Mr. Government Ekpemukpolo, (Tompolo) an Ijaw man from Okorenkoko, in Niger Delta, without recourse to an Isoko representative, body or council. It should be noted that the combined efforts of the COO Upstream Mr. Adokiye Tombomieye and the Minister for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, who brokered the deal, as widely reported, are both Ijaw men from Rivers and the Bayelsa states.
"The said signed contract is riddled with signs of corruption, especially with the fact that the COO of the NNPC Upstream had been severally accused of corruption. In the same vein, their move to award the contract to their kinsmen reeks of corruption and pecuniary interests which is inimical to the development and probity of the Nigerian government. Adokiye had, before the contract was signed, promised the Isoko youths in his office that part of it would be given to Isoko youths, but it was now disheartening that he never kept his word.
"Mr. Adokiye Tombomieye has promised Isoko Leaders in his office in Abuja, that he will give part of the Surveillance Contract to Isoko youths. It’s therefore disheartening and to our greatest dismay that he would renege on his promise. We the Isoko youth council hereby demanded for a fresh contract to be awarded where the interest of the Isoko people will be taken into consideration, with a company chosen by stakeholders from the region or alternatively, to create a subcontract from the already signed one.", the petition stated.
All efforts to reach out to the minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva were unsuccessful as his mobile line was unreachable while on his part, the Chief Operating Office of the NNPC Upstream, Adokiye Tombomieye debunked all the allegations, saying the "story is not true.”