Former militant leaders in the Niger Delta Government Ekpemukpolo (a.k.a. Tompolo) and Ateke Tom have begun talks with the federal government on the renewal of oil pipeline surveillance contract which expired last year.
The federal government team negotiating the new contract terms with the ex militants is led by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). It was learnt that more ex-militants would benefit from the new contracts because of the growing opposition to the federal government’s selection of a few leaders of the former agitators for the multi-billion-naira contracts.
LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered that the renewal of the contract for the pipeline protection is at an advanced stage -- the management of the NNPC and the ex-militant leaders are close to reaching a deal.
An official of the NNPC who sought anonymity confirmed that the contract expired last year and that talks were on with the former militants to renew it. “If the ex-militants disclosed to you that they are negotiating with the NNPC, your story is true,” he said and declined further details.
Several phone calls and other efforts made by LEADERSHIP Weekend to get an affirmative position from the ex-militant leaders including Tompolo and Pastor Reuben on the renewal of the contract with the NNPC met a brick wall.
The cost of the expired pipeline surveillance contract is put at N5.6 billion. It was awarded by the government to the ex-militants to check oil theft in the once volatile region, but oil theft has persisted, leading to Nigeria losing 600, 000 barrels daily.
A breakdown of the last pipeline protection contract entered into with the ex-militant leaders showed that Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari got $9 million yearly to pay his 4,000 former foot soldiers to protect the pipelines.
Ebikabowei “Boyloaf” Victor Ben and Ateke Tom got $3.8 million a year apiece to have their men guard the pipelines, while Government “Tompolo” Ekpmupolo had a $22.9 million a year contract to do the same job.
According to sources, the NNPC evaluation of the performance of the ex-militant leaders showed a poor rating with Tompolo rated highest as “using the contract as directed to protect the pipelines in the Delta”.
Scope of proposed contract
LEADERSHIP Weekend learnt that the proposed contract would include other ex-militant leaders that were left out in the last exercise. Already, some of them haved formed themselves into groups under a supervisory committee of security operatives, oil company executives and ex-militants to ensure full compliance with the contract terms.
Each leader of the former militants in the Niger Delta states, it was further learnt, may be selected to pilot the contract in their states. Edo State, according to sources, may be left out of it.
Both the former militant leaders and an NNPC source could not confirm the contract value, but they said it would be higher than the old one.
Oil production at the peak of militants’ activities in the Niger Delta was at 1.3 million barrels per day while output increased progressively up to 2.7 million barrels per day after the amnesty programme and the award of pipelines surveillance contracts.
Since the beginning of this year, oil theft and pipeline vandalism have risen with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) recently shutting down the Imo River trunk line in its eastern operation and reduced production by 25,000 barrels daily. Several crude theft points were found on the facility.
It was learnt that the former militants are seeking the inclusion of the Amnesty Office in the pipeline surveillance contract as some of them faulted the restriction of the office to the training of the ex-agitators.
Kennedy West, president of the Association for Non-Violence in the Niger Delta (ANND), confirmed this when he told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the federal government missed the point in excluding the office of the special adviser to the president on Niger Delta and chairman of Presidential Amnesty Committee from the pipeline surveillance deal.
An official of the Amnesty Office confirmed that the federal government was renegotiating the surveillance contract because “some people just want things to be done anyhow”. The official said that the Amnesty Office was not involved in the pipeline surveillance contract. He said: “We are not involved in capital projects under the amnesty scheme. Our mandate is the training of the former militants. I don’t know the cost of the expired contract and the new one purportedly being negotiated with the ex-militants because it is not under our jurisdiction.”
Meanwhile, hundreds of youths involved in illegal oil bunkering in the creeks and waterways of the Niger Delta have called on the government to release the over 257 of their members arrested of by the operatives of the Joint Military Task Force known as Operation Pulo Shield and other security agents. They said they are not “oil thieves but businessmen providing employment for youths in the region”.
In a statement sent to LEADERSHIP Weekend in Yenagoa, the national president of the Ijaw People Development Initiative (IPDI), Comrade Ozobo Austin, the president of the Committee for Rural Development Movement, Mr Asiaye Enaibo, the president of the Niger Delta Peace Initiatives, Comrade Newstyle Ogirenwarekame, the National Council of Ijaw Activists (NACIA), Alhaji Yusuf Eregbene, and the coordinator of the Niger Delta Ethnic Nationality Initiative (NENF), Comrade Napoleon Peretoru urged the government to consider the request for amnesty by the illegal refinery operators because they create employment and empowerment opportunities for youths in the region.
But the authorities of the Joint Military Task Force known as Operation Restore Hope through the data provided by its media coordinator, Lt-Col. Nwachukwu, said, “We have reduced the activities of illegal bunkerers in the form of crude oil theft, theft of refined petroleum products by vandalising pipelines and well-heads, as well as illegal distillation of crude oil (illegal refinery) to produce adulterated Automated Gas Oil (AGO).”
Leadership
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