Niger Delta youths’ coalition under the auspices of the Coalition of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders for Peace Group (NDENYLPG) has warned some Ijaw groups allegedly blackmailing the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III, over unfounded allegations concerning pipeline surveillance contract.
An ex-militant leader and the national coordinator of NDENYLPG, ‘General’ A. Osama and the National Secretary, ‘General’ Jemine Josiah, in a statement yesterday, vehemently warned the sponsored Ijaw groups to henceforth stop their lies and cheap blackmail by some unscrupulous elements calling for the termination of the contract awarded the revered monarch.
Rising from a crucial meeting recently, the youths’ coalition said: “The NDENYLPG deems it fit to come from all parts of the Niger Delta where our leaders from Itsekiri, Ijaw, Urhobo, Kalabari, Okrika, Egbema, Isoko, Bini and others converged in Edo State from the creeks of the Niger Delta recently for an all-important emergency meeting to deliberate and address some pressing issues that are threatening the sustained peace existing in the heart of the region.
“We totally condemn calls for the termination of the contract of Ocean Marine Solutions Company that is handling the Trans-Forcados Pipeline (TFP), of which the Olu of Warri Kingdom, Ogiame Atuwatse III, OFR, is the Chairman.
“The Itsekiri tribe in Delta State owns over 60 per cent of that Trans Forcados Pipeline, while only 30 per cent of that TFP crisscrosses the Ijaw communities in the creeks and by virtue of this, who is supposed to be awarded the responsibility of the security of the TFP pipeline surveillance contract? Definitely it is well deserved for the revered first class monarch, the Olu of Warri Kingdom, Ogiame Atuwatse the III, OFR, to handle it.
“Therefore, we want to warn that the so-called disgruntled fellows of a group, Niger Delta Stakeholders Forum (NDSF), headed by one Chief Julius Daukoru from Ijaw ethnic nationality to call for the cancelation of the surveillance contract handled by OMSC, chaired by the revered monarch, the Olu of Warri Kingdom, is an insult, aberration and sacrilege to the Itsekiri nation as whole.
“The call to re-award it to Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, an ex-militant leader, who is an Ijaw man from Gbaramatu Kingdom, is totally condemnable, disheartening and uncalled for. We deem it as adding petrol to the fire and we stand against this move being made by the so-called disgruntled, unscrupulous and notorious group of persons that are playing the script of their paymasters.”
The coalition said that for the purpose of clarity and putting the records straight, the Ocean Marine Solutions Company had never breached its contract terms and guidelines of the agreement entered with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) as falsely alleged by the group.