Right activist and veteran broadcaster Chief Mrs. Rita-Lori Ogbebor has urged the Federal Government to revoke the N4.5 billion monthly pipeline contract given to Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo, the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), calling it an invitation to anarchy.
The allocation of the enormous contract sum to one individual in the Niger Delta, according to Chief Egbebor, is a blatant example of how the Federal Government has abdicated its duties to the people and failed to manage the oil riches in the region and maintain peace in the nation.
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Lori warned that both the state and federal governments must show the necessary political will to implement the NDDC Master Plan and avoid enriching a select few at the expense of the common good of the people of the Niger Delta region. She insisted that failure to heed the advice could spell doom for the country. Lori spoke at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday.
The Federal Government must revoke the contract award for the Tompolo pipeline, correctly appoint the NDDC board, and ensure that the Act is implemented in its entirety in order to bring about a permanent peace in the region.
Should the Federal Government continue to watch as the level of insecurity brought on by kidnapping, terrorism, banditry, and other crimes rises to an unthinkable level? When Niger Delta militants pick up their weapons once more, the situation will be a piece of cake.
“There is anarchy in the Niger Delta and I feel that the world should know about it. I have earlier said that the insecurity Nigerians should worry about is not the type going on in the northern part of the country, but that of the Niger Delta.”
“Interestingly, they didn’t see it the way I saw it. I am from the place and I know what I am talking about. What we have today will be a child’s play if the insecurity in the region fully manifests itself. If it has not, it will soon do so in another few months.”
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“You will take a pipeline contract in Delta State, your place and then you come to Kalabari to take another one saying you are an Ijaw man because you are the only one that knows how to eat.
“You took the ones that belong to Gbaramatu, Itsekiri, Isoko, Urhobo, Kwale, you took all because you are the only one that knows how to eat. You went to Bayelsa and took everything then you came to take the one in Kalabari.
“If Timipre Sylva gave you because he said he wanted to clip my wings as if he were a god, when Sylva was a member of the House of Assembly, did I clip his wings? I am older than Sylva?
“When he was a governor, did I clip his wings? He is now a minister, did I clip his wings? Sylva said I was becoming too powerful and connived to give pipeline contracts to only Tompolo so that he would destroy what we are doing for the government he serves.
“We are making the government to be stable, but he is destabilising the same government he serves. So he brought Tompolo, gathered people, saying he would buy guns for them. Let them come. I am not boasting, let soldiers bring the Tompolo boys here.
“I am not talking about Rivers. I am saying they cannot take Kalabari. They can take every other place but I won’t allow them take Kalabari. You are collecting over N4.5bn a month for doing nothing and people are supporting you. You must leave the 82km pipeline for Kalabari. You can’t take it” she stated.
