Contractors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline security and surveillance contract, Gani Adams, Asari Dokunbo, Fredrick Faseun amongst others have petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari to compel the corporation to pay settle its indebtedness to them.
Gani Adams and Fasehun are among the NNPC pipeline surveillance contractors.
The group in a letter written to the President and made available to Naij, they said they had a “valid and duly signed contract agreements with the management of the NNPC to protect the pipelines for a period of three months.”
The contractors who are also leaders of ethnic agitating/militia groups denied that the contract was not politically motivated.
“Up on till now, the public perception of the NNPC Pipeline Security and Surveillance job was that former President Goodluck Jonathan gave the job to the contractors on the platter of politics. But nothing can be farther from the truth than this.
Therefore, for the purpose of clarity, it should be noted that the contract was signed between the contractors and the management of the NNPC, an agency of government, as a way of finding lasting solutions to the incessant problem of pipeline vandalisation across the country.
The terms and agreements of the contract were formulated and drafted by the management of the NNPC and was duly signed by all the parties, including the contractors and the legal department of the NNPC after several meetings and consultations.
It is also necessary for the public to know that, against widely held belief that the contract was terminated by the Federal Government, it should be noted that the contract indeed ran its course, which was a period of three months, starting from March 15, 2015 and ended June 15, 2015.
It is our belief that the contract agreement between the NNPC and the contractors is a public document and therefore can always be accessed by any member of public.”
Speaking further, they said they decided to write the president following his promise during his inauguration that he ‘belongs to everybody and belongs to nobody’ but added that it would not fail to seek legal redress in court if their demands are not met.
“It is not in doubt that since our men left the sites after the expiration of the contract period, the pipelines have become porous and unsafe, leading to an increase in the activities of the vandals, who for obvious reasons are now having field days in their dastardly activities.
“While it disturbing that the price of oil has continued to fall in the global oil market, making rubbish of government’s budgets, but it is even more disturbing that vandals are allowed to steal what ordinarily would have made up for the shortfall as a result of the fall in price.
“Perhaps, the most unfortunate thing in all of this is the attitude of some of our political leaders who do not believe that anything good can come out of our people.
“Or how do you explain the public condemnation in some quarters when the job was given to the contractors to protect the pipelines. But the good thing is that all the contractors executed the job like a call to service and made sure that the activities of the vandals were curtailed significantly during the period of the contract.
“You will agree with us that in a country governed by the rule of law, failure to abide by a contractual agreement is deemed to be an offence which ordinarily should attract the attention of anti- corruption agencies like the EFCC and ICPC” they said in the letter.
Other contrators at the meeting were High Chief Bibo pere Ajube- Galery Security Services Ltd; Chief Joshua Machiever- Bajeros NIG Ltd; High Chief Omo- Close Body Protection Ltd; Izon Ibe Security Ltd.
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