The lawsuit was filed by One Love Foundation, OLF over the ministers’ failure to make public the contract papers of the recent award of a pipeline surveillance contract to Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has granted an interim order of mandamus and leave to commence a judicial review suit against the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Silva and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
The lawsuit was filed by One Love Foundation, OLF over the ministers’ failure to make public the contract papers of the recent award of a pipeline surveillance contract to Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo.
According to One Love Foundation, this is necessary for public scrutiny of the contract.
The award of the contract to Tompolo has elicited criticism, but Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of NNPCL, had said the federal government made “the right decision”.
Kyari had alleged that security agencies, churches, mosques and communities where pipelines pass through were involved in pipeline vandalism and theft of petroleum products in the Niger Delta.
Defending the government’s decision to award the pipeline surveillance contract to the former militant leader, Kyari said, “We need private contractors to man the right of way to these pipelines. So, we put up a framework for contractors to come and bid and they were selected through a tender process. And we believe we made the right decision."
A non-governmental organisation, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) described the government’s award of the pipeline surveillance contract to Ekpemupolo as a promotion of criminality.
Auwal Musa, the executive director of CISLAC, while speaking on the development, said awarding such a contract to an ex-militant is questionable.
“What is the value of the investments and allocations made from the national treasury to the numerous security paraphernalia in Nigeria if an ex-militant is seen to be more competent to deliver on security issues than the entire armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Musa said.
“It is really sad that the Nigerian government is promoting criminality because what they have practically done is encourage criminality.
“So, criminals can take arms against the state and they can now rubbish our own security; the police, navy, army, and DSS, meaning all of them cannot secure the country or the oil pipelines. One day, the Nigerian government will come and hire terrorists to guide us. This is really terrible,” he added.
One Love Foundation earlier demanded the details of the contractual terms and documents regarding the contract based on the Freedom of Information Act.
The President of OLF, Chief Patrick Eholor, noted that it became necessary for them as an organisation to know what the contract entails as stakeholders and Nigerians as far as oil production and securing pipelines in the Niger Delta region are concerned, hence the suit against the Federal government, federal Minister of petroleum resources and Attorney general of the federation.
However, the suit filed at the Federal High Court with suit no FHC/Abj/1723/2022 and argued by a certain Miss G.S. Okafor Esq came up for hearing on Thursday wherein One Love Foundation vide the case filed sought some reliefs from the court.
Their prayers and application were granted and after hearing the submissions of Okafor, the court granted leave to commence judicial review proceedings against Tompolo’s surveillance pipeline contract.
The court presided over by Justice Emeka Nwite granted all orders sought by One Love Foundation.
It thereafter adjourned to December 12, 2022 for the final determination of the suit.