Senate summons Kyari over N48bn pipeline surveillance contract awarded to Tompolo

• Published date: 21 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions has summoned the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Mele Kyari, over a N48 billion pipeline surveillance contract awarded to stakeholders in the Niger Delta region.

The pipeline surveillance contract was awarded by the Federal Government to Global West Vessel Specialist Limited, a private maritime security firm founded by Government Ekpemupolo, an erstwhile Commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) also known as Tompolo.

The Tompolo-owned firm was expected to protect all the oil pipelines criss-crossing nearly all the states in the Niger Delta in collaboration with other major stakeholders in the oil bearing communities in the region.

Specifically, Tompolo is expected to carry out the N4 billion per month contract that covers Delta, Ondo, Imo, Rivers and some parts of Bayelsa State in collaboration with major tribes along the communities that host the oil pipelines.

However the Isoko Ethnic Nationality has petitioned the Senate alleging that their young men were not being carried along in the multi-billion naira project.

The Isoko people under the auspices of Interested Isoko Youth Groups, through a petition sent to the Senate on their behalf by Stanley Okonmah, said they were completely marginalised in the contract award.

The lsoko Ethnic Nationality requested the Senate to probe the award of the contract and prevail on the...