Former President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, yesterday described critics of oil pipeline security contracts to ex-militants as hypocrites.
He also said that criticising the Federal Government’s policy that allows Niger Delta people to play a role in the oil sector indicates that other Nigerians have no interest of the people of that area at heart.
Dokubo-Asari, who is currently in Germany, asked the Nigerian Compass on Sunday in a telephone interview why the critics saw nothing wrong when the Federal Government the awarded similar security contracts to people from other parts of the country.
He also expressed anger that the critics, whom he called hypocrites, were mute when oil wells in the Niger Delta were being awarded by previous Nigerian government to individuals from a particular part of the country.
He asked: “If they want contracts to guard pipelines too, they should go and drill for oil in their backyards. They should then watch the Nigerian government award the wells to people from other zones while the owners of the wells live in shanties and sleep in make-shift shops in Lagos.”
He continued: “They should tell us what they are contributing to the national purse before they start complaining about how money in it is spent. When the oil wells were awarded to the Theophilus Danjumas, the Aliko Dangotes, and the Alhaji Mai Deribes, nobody came to our aid. When the policing of the pipelines was given to people from other zones and how much those other people got, nobody complained.
“What it takes to monitor the oil wells and allow the rest of Nigeria to hold their monthly Federal Allocation Committee meetings in Abuja and share proceeds from our oil wells to Zamfara, Kano, Oyo; none of these people want to know. It is now that the people of Niger Delta are helping the nation guard the pipelines and they are having so much more to share from where they did not sow that they will not sleep. Yet, they are the ones still owning the oil wells, our oil wells. When ecological disasters happen to our areas, they will all remember their home communities and leave us with the mess.”
He particularly lashed out at the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which on Friday issued a statement condemning the contracts that were reported by the United States Wall Street Journal as being given by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to him and some other ex-militants, namely: Ebikaowei “Boyloaf” Victor Ben, Ateke Tom and Government “Tompolo” Ekpumopolo.
Dokubo-Asari, a former member of the ACN, described the party’s leaders as hypocrites who lack the moral right to criticize him over oil pipeline security contract.
He wondered why the southwest-dominated ACN had not said anything against the named suspected oil subsidy ‘thieves’, one of whom he said is fronting for its national leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Dokubo-Asari wondered why the ACN didn’t see anything wrong when oil blocs in the Niger Delta were being allocated to individuals who are not from the area.
He stressed that this is not the first time that contract for pipeline security would be awarded, all of which he noted were to individuals from outside the Niger Delta.
His words: “It is really unfortunate that a political party that was meant to be a national party has been reduced to a platform for personal vendetta.
“Where were the ACN leaders when oil blocs in the Niger Delta were recklessly given to people who are not from the area?
“It is hypocritical of the ACN and its leaders, who in one breath talk of federalism, and in another talk about how to share other people’s resources.
“ACN should not pretend in any way that its membership cuts across other nationalities, other than its preferred nationality.
“Most of us who, hitherto, saw ACN as a platform for the articulation of a progressive leadership, have now reconsidered our relationship with the hypocrites in that party.
“What have the ACN and its leaders done or said about the Wale Tinubus, the Femi Otedolas, and Fola Adeola, the vice presidential candidate of the ACN in the 2011 election, among others, whose names appear conspicuously on the so-called subsidy fraud list?
“Everyday we learn new lessons. This particular lesson we have just learnt has strengthened the resolve in us that Nigeria is not a place for us.
“If ACN and its leaders feel they will use blackmail and coerce President Jonathan to become like them, then they have failed.
“We have known them for what they are. Even when we were with them, we thought they were of a different breed, but they have manifested themselves as no different from their forebears who pursued an agenda that was different from the agenda they openly preached.
“We call on all our people to resolve to stand up, because there is only one river to cross, and very soon we will cross that river. And there is nothing they can do about it.”
The ACN had in a statement issued on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described the $40 million reportedly being paid annually to Asari and some ex-militants to guard the country’s oil pipelines as illegal, unconstitutional and indefensible,
The party said in part: “The reckless manner political power is exercised and monopolized by a few individuals is partly overheating the polity.
“We state again emphatically that it is totally unacceptable and unconscionable – even unprecedented especially in a fragile federation like ours – for any government to hand over the security of its entire maritime domain to a private firm, a group of ex – militants for that matter, given the far reaching implications of such a decision for trade, security, ports and shipping in the country.
“What is the agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan in allowing this to happen? Why would a government so willingly abdicate its responsibility of ensuring the security of its maritime domain? What were the ministers thinking when they approved this dangerous memo?”
Courtesy Compass
No comments:
Post a Comment