Northern groups clash over Tompolo’s pipeline surveillance contract

Two Northern groups, Coalition of Arewa Civil Society Groups and the Amalgamated Arewa Youth Groups, on Tuesday traded words over the N4bn worth of pipeline surveillance contract awarded to ex-Niger Delta militant, Government Ekpemupolo otherwise known as ‘Tompolo’, by the Nigerian National Petroleum Limited.

While one group was in full support of the award of the contract to the Niger Delta war-lord, the other called for revocation.

The Amalgamated Arewa Youth Groups kicked against the award of the N4bn contract and gave the Federal Government and the NNPC to revoke the contract or be forced to either protest or risk legal action.

The group also urged the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari(retd), to sack the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, and Director, Upstream of the NNPC LTD, Mr. Adokiye Tombomelye, for “promoting ethnic and regional interest as well as the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, for using his office to allegedly reward criminality.”

However, addressing journalists in Kaduna on Tuesday, Spokesperson of the Coalition of Arewa Civil Society Groups, Mallam Aminu Abbas, described the call for the revocation of the contract and the sack of the minister, other NNPC executives as “baseless” while distancing the region from the pronouncement of the “faceless Arewa Group.”

According to him, the Federal Government/NNPC contracting the pipeline surveillance to the Niger Delta war-lord is a step in the right direction.

He added that apart from the pipeline surveillance, the Federal Government should equally award the contract securing rail lines from terrorists in the north to Tompolo.

Abbas lauded the efforts of the president for engaging host communities from the Niger Delta region to protect facilities that would boost the country’s economy.

He noted that what should bother any Arewa group now was how to join hands with other stakeholders to address regional insecurity and not who should get a “pipeline surveillance contract.”

The CACS group’s Spokesperson said, “our attention has been drawn to the unpatriotic call made by a faceless Arewa Group on the crude oil surveillance contract awarded by the federal government through NNPC Limited to a respected Nationalist of repute, Government Ekpemupolo better known as ‘Tompolo.’

“The condemnation call is baseless; hence we distance the good people of northern Nigeria to such a myopic action of some faceless group camouflaging in the name of AREWA.

“It’s important to note that the era of shadow chasing is over. What is expected of any concern Arewa Group at this critical material time is to engage all concerned stakeholders from within and outside our region on how best to address the lingering problem of insecurity and bring it to a logical end.

“We want to use this medium to thank Mr President for making the right decision because our National asset will be secured even more by engaging the host communities to join hands with our security agencies in protecting these facilities and, in return, would boost the Nigerian economy.”