Group petitions UN, ECOWAS, OPEC over pipeline contracts

A coalition of civil society groups, yesterday, alleged that the involvement of ex-militants in oil economic management and distribution was partly responsible for the current fuel scarcity in the country, saying their contracts should be revoked.

The group urged the United Nations Security Council and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to pressure the Nigerian government to stop the award of pipeline contracts to people linked in the past or present to armed insurgency in Nigeria.

The group, Civil Society Coalition for Mandate Protection (CSC-MAP), established in 2010, petitioned the Organisation of Petroleum Producing Countries (OPEC) to reinforce international standards to ensure pipeline protection is not associated with armed groups and militants in any of the member states.

While urging President Bola Tinubu to, as a matter of urgency, set up a judicial inquiry to probe the proliferation of arms in the Niger Delta, the group urged the President of OPEC to insist that member states must, henceforth, stop the award of oil contracts to armed groups.

The group’s General Secretary, Popoola Ajayi, said that the most dangerous threat to democracy is the proliferation of arms and pockets of violence across the country, saying that Tinubu needs peace and stability to be able to deliver the dividends of democracy.

Ajayi said: “We are networking with local and international organisations to intensify the campaign against the award of contracts to people suspected to be linked with armed insurrection against the Nigerian State.

“We have also started building a network with groups across the country and in the West Africa sub-region. This is the second of such rallies to sensitise Nigerians on the need to immediately stop the award of oil pipeline contracts to people associated with violence.”

He said that the group will have these rallies in Ibadan, Kano, Port Harcourt, Abuja and at the ECOWAS headquarters. He stressed that the rallies will be peaceful.”