The Aare Prince Osibote -led Oodua Peoples Congress, (OPC) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to as a matter of urgency, address the issues surrounding the controversial pipelines surveillance contract award of OML 30 and 34. The award according to Osibote, was allegedly awarded to a service senator by proxy through his younger brother.
Osibote argued that the controversial contract ought to have been awarded the ex-militants of Urhobo and Isoko lands who he said have the right of first refusal being the one who made the contract possible in the first place.
Odubote said without militancy there would not have been need for the surveillance of oil pipelines, as he called on the Federal Government to reaward the contract to the former former militans, led by Eshanakpe Israel, aka Akpodoro.
He daid the Akpodoro’s coalition deserved the contract having defeated the then rampaging Niger Delta Avengers, (NDA) which he described as a criminal group that intended to overrun the Nigerian state by crippling the economy.
He stated further that it was based on the then prevailing circumstance that the Federal Government promised Akpodoro and his group the surveillance contract if he supported their war against the Avengers.
“Those who sat on the fence during this period are the ones benefiting now. This is wrong,” he said.
He added: “We call on the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to equally look into this matter and make adjustments immediately. We know the enormous resources that the Mayor of Urhoboland would have ploughed into all this and we need a government to immediately nip troubles in the bud. They have been firing warning shots on the pipelines and we are also aware that some have been trying to cover up the damages done to the pipelines in recent times. It goes to show that they don’t have all it takes to secure the pipelines thereby defeating the need for security of the pipelines.”