The Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, has been fingered in the controversial pipeline contract recently awarded to then former leader of the Niger Delta agitators, Tompolo.
Since Mr. Government Ekpemupolo otherwise known as Tompoplo, a controversial former militant leader and founder of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger-Delta (MEND), was announced as the recipient of the Pipeline Surveillance contract, there has been high level anxiety in the South-South region of the country, particularly among the oil producing states in the region.
According to an earlier article, the now-controversial contract has prompted intramural warfare among former military personnel and warlords who are now threatening to resume carrying weapons. The contract is valued at over a staggering N48 billion. READ MORE
The founder of the former militant organization Niger-Delta People Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujaheed Asari Dokubo, did not take the news lightly; in fact, he threatened to resist any attempt by Tompolo or government forces to enter his home territory of Kalabari in the guise of pipeline surveillance.
Dokubo alleged that the pipeline surveillance contract given to Tompolo was engineered by government officials as a deliberate act of retaliation against him for consistently criticizing Buhari’s regime.
Tompolo reportedly contacted Dokubo-Asari and Ateke Tom, a former military leader who is now the monarch of Rivers state, a few weeks ago, but it seems Dokubo and Tompolo have not resolved their differences.
While some Niger-delta elites, concerned Nigerians, and civil society organizations in the country, including some current governors, continue to protest the Federal Government’s move to approve high-tech weapons for a private security firm owned by an ex-militant leader against all civil reasoning, ENigeria Newspaper has learned from a number of independent sources that Mele Kyari, the current Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, is one individual who allegedly played a significant role in securing the contract for Tompolo.
Even though our sources were unable to confirm Mr. Mele Kyari’s interest in the multi-billion-dollar contract given to Tompolo, the NNPC GMD has been seen to be forthright in defending the choice to award such a sensitive contract to a former militant leader who has been hunted by the government for years for multiple infractions.
It is thought that Mele Kyari should have used his position as head of the oil corporation to work with the government and security agencies to purge the system and fish out the culprits sabotaging the economy of Nigeria rather than advising the government to tilt towards such decision, which is now being described as horrendous albeit horrifying.
In the meantime, questions are also being asked about how the Tompolo deal was processed. According to several commentators, the procurement procedure was not effectively supervised in accordance with expected standards which should ordinarily necessitate thorough investigation.
“It is true that Nigeria is losing billions to oil theft, which is thought to be an organized crime perpetrated by top NNPC officials working in tandem with other top officials in the ministry of petroleum resources, how can Kyari and others advise the government to award such a contract to someone of questionable character if they have no interest? ” asked our source who spoke to our correspondent in Abuja.
“Mele Kyari has the support of a powerful cabal at Aso Rock; therefore, nothing will happen to him; nonetheless, the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) must launch an inquiry into the entire process”, the source added.
Mele Kolo Kyari, a 57-year-old Nigerian geologist and crude oil marketer, is the 19th Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. He was born in January 1965. His leadership of the NNPC is marked by a number of questionable decisions that, taken together, have had a significant negative impact on Nigeria’s oil industry. Under his leadership, the NNPC lost an unprecedented amount of petroleum products to oil thieves, causing Nigeria’s economy to bleed.
Source: ENigeria Newspaper
