Group known as Ijaw People’s Development Initiative, IPDI, has strongly condemned calls by Oodua Peoples Congress (Reformed) and Civil Society Coalition for Mandate Protection for calling for a review of Niger Delta Pipeline Surveillance Contract, awarded to Niger Delta ex-agitator, Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo.

IPDI, in a statement by its national president, Comrade Ozobo Austin said it was “shameful that responsible Oodua Peoples Congress (Reformed) could allow itself to be used by merchants of confusion and blackmailers to demand for a review of Tompolo’s Surveillance Contract in Niger Delta barely a shot while of reviewing the contract.”

The group added: “We are aware that selfish and failed stakeholders who were also biding for the contract were behind verbal attacks against Tompolo and Tantita Security company. It’s only enemies of Niger Delta (sic) could at this time barely a few months of the renew of Tompolo’s Surveillance Contract, calling again for review of such a contract.

“The Oodua Congress and others, in case they forget, should know that the Niger Delta Pipeline Surveillance Contract was initiated by High Chief (Dr) Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, it was part of the terms agreed upon during the signing of the presidential Amnesty Programme.

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“Despite the pipeline security contract being initiated by Tompolo, it was awarded to the Yorubas, Calabars, and Benins from 2009 till 2022, when the Buhari-led administration awarded part of the contract to Tompolo having observed that the activities of oil theft get increasing despite being superintendent by the Navy, NSCDC, Army and non-indigenous contractors.

“In case the Oodua Congress and others are poor students of history, they should know that the federal government revoked the pipeline surveillance from non-indigenous contractors and military because it loses confidence in them. It took the Buhari administration to sort for capable hands for a reasonable period of time before Tompolo was recommended from the security angle. Despite this recommendation, it was still part of the contract that was awarded to Tompolo.

“The bigger part which has to do with the offshore is still in the hands of the Itsekiri monarch. I feel disgusted when people of Yoruba, Itsekiri and Ilaje decide to remain mute over the large portion of the Surveillance Contract their brother is handling and continues to point fingers at Tompolo. This is very unfair and mischievous.

“Let me state unequivocally that the Nigeria crude daily production was far below a 1m barrel per day at the time Tompolo came on board, but today the narrative is no longer the same, we now approximately produce 1.7m barrels per day.

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“This was the reason the federal government decided to renew the Tompolo Surveillance Contract. Tompolo has shown capacity, resilience, competence, intelligence and resourcefulness in the fight against oil theft.

“This is a fact why the federal government will allow Tompolo to continue being in charge of the Surveillance Contract for now. The Itsekiri monarch contract is cutting across Ijaw in scope, but no Ijaw has agitated that the contract should be revoked from the Itsekiri monarch.

“I am very disappointed at some unpopular stakeholders using all mediums to incite discord against Tompolo in order to get the contract awarded to them. This is shameful and desperation taken too far.

“Again, it should be stated clearly that the government is not interested about who gets what but deeply interested about who can end oil theft in the country. Till this moment, the federal government is aware that in the whole of Niger Delta there is no one who can do the surveillance job better than Tompolo,, hence all these cheap calls for contract review will end up in a deft ears of the government for now.

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“We are aware that these unfounded calls have been sponsored by oil thieves and greedy contractors. Their reason is not far fetched, they want the surveillance contract to be given to the military or inexperienced and incompetent contractor to create a room for them to continue their oil theft business.

“The government is aware of the sinister intention of those calling on president Bola Ahmed Tinubu to review or revoke the Tompolo pipeline surveillance contract.

“The whole gamut of the call to review Tompolo’s Surveillance Contract is being manipulated by corrupt and greedy fellows. To think of it, despite the contract being awarded to Tompolo’s Surveillance Company, it is still being handled by boys, men and women in such areas or tribes where such operations are carried out.

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“No foreigner is employed to do the job. All the subcontractors are indigenes of the oil and gas communities in Niger Delta.
It is a known fact the contract can’t accommodate everybody in the whole community, maybe that is what some referred to as marginalisation, I don’t know.

“But what I know is that no community under Tompolo’s Surveillance coverage is marginalised and sidelined.

“Therefore, I advised mischief makers and enemies of progress in Niger Delta to repent from their stock in trade and engage themselves in productive activities, rather than blackmailing and betraying a fellow brother for bread and meat.

“It is part of my appeal to the federal government to ignore and disregard sinister calls of perceived oil thieves to pave the way to continue their business”.

Oil dealers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, on Tuesday, declared that it would shut down the 30,000 stations operated by IPMAN members across the country if the Federal Government fails to pay the N200bn that is being owed marketers.

IPMAN specifically said the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, an agency of the Federal Government, had refused to clear the debt, which had continued to accrue since September 2022.

It disclosed this in a communique issued in Abuja by the Chairman of IPMAN Depot Chairmen Forum, Yahaya Alhassan, over the non-payment of marketers’ bridging claims. IPMAN controls over 30,000 filling stations in Nigeria.

Bridging claims are payments made by the government to oil marketers for the transportation of petroleum products loaded from depots to various states across the country.

Alhassan said the consequences of the failure by NMDPRA to pay the N200bn “will be terrible, as every marketer’s outlet across Nigeria, from the North to the South, and from the East to the West, will be shut down.”

He added, “As IPMAN, we have taken every step in the past to salvage this unfortunate and looming situation, which we know will not augur well for Nigerians, but we are presently left with no option than to go all out in the next few days to address this ugly trend in our own way, which will portend great hardship and danger for Nigerians.”

The IPMAN official pointed out that at a stakeholders meeting held on February 20, 2024, with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, the Chief Executive of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, was mandated by Lokpobiri to clear the entire debt in 40 days.

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“However, today we have crossed the 40 day time-lapse given to the NMDPRA to clear the debt, and it is shameful to state that only the paltry sum of N13bn has been paid, thus going the whole length to ignore our plight without remorse and without recourse to the minister’s directive.

“Before now, we had taken the honourable path to continually seek an explanation from the NMDPRA on why it has blatantly refused to offset the remaining debt, but we have ceaselessly met brick walls,” Alhassan stated.

He said IPMAN was extremely distressed and depressed by the laidback attitude of the leadership of NMDPRA towards the survival of its members’ businesses, arising from NMDPRA’s deliberate delay and refusal to offset the debt of over N200bn.

“This has consequently led to the deaths of many of our members and the unfortunate collapse of their businesses. It is also disheartening to note that some of our members have completely shut down their businesses and retrenched their employees as we are no longer able to pay salaries.

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“As businessmen and women, our members acquired bank loans to keep their fuel retail outlets running on a daily basis across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, in order to serve the teeming population of Nigerians.

“However, it is demoralising to know that many of our members have gone bankrupt and have become financially insolvent as a result of their inability to meet their financial obligations to their banks, arising wholly from their inability to get their monies from the NMDPRA,” Alhassan stated.

Consequently, according to the IPMAN official, the banks have taken over the business premises of many of our members.

He said, “NMDPRA have illegally taken our monies and this is the highest level of fraud. Sequel to this, we are appealing to Mr President to please intervene in this quagmire that we have been subjected to by the NMDPRA.

“We repeat, if our demands are not met within the shortest period of time, we have already put our members on standby across the nation, as law-abiding citizens, we are collectively prepared to withdraw our services, close every single outlet, and suspend lifting of products forthwith till our demands are fully met.”

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When contacted, the NMDPRA said the payment process was ongoing. “Not everyone is paid at the same time, rather the payment process is an ongoing thing,” a spokesperson for the agency, Seiyefa Osanebi stated.

Meanwhile, commenting on the scarcity of fuel across the country, Alhassan said the problem was because the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was not supplying enough petrol to dealers.

“It is expedient for us to state that we are more pained by the non-availability of petroleum products across the country, which has given rise to another round of untold hardship for Nigerians.

“We would like to categorically state that the scarcity of PMS is wholly triggered by the NNPC and not by IPMAN or her members. Contrary to claims that IPMAN members are hoarding PMS products, we make bold to say that NNPC is the sole importer of PMS and therefore the sole cause of the present scarcity in Nigeria,” he stated.

IPMAN also stated that NNPC was supplying petrol to private depots, adding that these depots raise the cost of the commodity to as high as N850/litre, which often leads to higher pump prices nationwide.

NNPC, however, assured Nigerians that the ongoing fuel scarcity and queues would be cleared out by Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Its Chief Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, reportedly stated this on Tuesday in Lagos.

He said the company currently has availability of products exceeding 1.5 billion litres, which can last for at least 30 days and blamed problems of logistics for the scarcity of petrol nationwide.

PUNCH

Yuki, wife of the detained Binance Holdings Limited executive, Tigran Gambaryan, has described the 65 days her husband has spent in custody as the longest in their lives.

Gambaryan and another Executive of the company, Nadeem Anjarwalla, were detained on February 26 following an investigation into Binance’s activities in Nigeria.

Yuki, represented by her congressman, Rich McCormick, spoke at the House Foreign Affairs Committee roundtable on Americans detained abroad on Tuesday.

Yuki accused the Nigerian government of luring her husband to the country and detaining Gambaryan without initially charging him with any crime.

Gambaryan’s wife stated that although she couldn’t speak on behalf of the company, she stressed that the charges against her husband were completely unfounded.

She said, ” My husband and the father of our two young children, Tigrin, has been in Nigerian custody for 65 days, the longest two months of our lives. On February 25, he landed in Abuja at the Nigerian government’s request for a financial compliance policy. This is what Tigran does. He helps countries navigate the notoriously prickly world of finance, crime, and compliance.

“He spends his days investigating and pursuing criminal activity on the cryptocurrency platform of Binance, his employer. However, 24 hours after his arrival, he was arrested and detained without charge or explanation.

“It took over two weeks for the Nigerian government to fabricate tax-related charges against Tigran and finance. I cannot speak for his employer, but the charges against Tigran are utterly baseless.

“He was lured into the country under false pretences, only to be arrested due to some allegations against his employer.”

Yuki also lamented that her husband was being kept at the Kuje correctional centre where terrorists were being held.

“Today, my husband sits in the notorious Kuje prison, a place that has held Militants from Islamic State and Boko Haram,” she said.

Gambaryan’s wife accused the Nigerian Government of using her husband as a bargaining chip, a situation she described as devastating.

She said, “Ironically, Tigran spent more than a decade as a special agent for the United States General Revolution Revenue Service, investigating issues of national security, terrorist financing, identity theft, distribution of tile pornography, tax evasion and more.

“To see my husband, who is by nature a person of goodwill and strong moral character, be used as a bargaining chip by the Nigerian government is devastating.”

She therefore called on the United States of America government to stop being passive in the matter involving its citizens.

Yuki said, “The United States cannot afford to remain passive while its citizens suffer tremendously in the name of geopolitical gamesmanship.”

Anjarwalla on March 23 escaped from safe custody and fled the country.

Gambaryan alongside Binance were subsequently arraigned by the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on tax evasion and money laundering charges respectively.