न्न्प्क पय्मेंट्स तो मिलितंत GROUPS

NNPC PAYMENTS TO MILITANT GROUPS

Recently there have been media reports on claims by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) that it paid millions of dollars to some militant groups in the Niger Delta region to protect petroleum pipelines. And yet almost on a daily basis there are cases of pipeline vandalisation and attacks on oil installations.

Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, has denied that it benefited from the largess. Please can NNPC furnish us with a list of the benefiting groups and how much each gets? So that the groups can react to these claims, what they get and how much, who get what and how much. We are aware that in most cases of hostage taking, about 10 per cent of money paid to hostage takers got to them while 90 are lost in transit between the people doling out the money, the negotiators and couriers of the ransom. And this NNPC payment would not be an exception. Who introduce NNPC to these gangs and who was the go between them?

Federal Government position is that the militant groups are criminal gangs. How then did NNPC, a government organization, be funding these groups in the name of payment for protection of pipeline? How are we sure that the proliferation of weapons in the region is not from this NNPC largess.


How much has the NNPC contributed to the development of the Niger Delta within the same period that this money was paid to the militants? Besides the joint venture projects what and what has NNPC contributed to Niger Delta? What is the total value of its joint venture projects in during the period of these payments? How much has NNPC contributed to the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, for the development of the oil bearing communities.

Those NNPC officials behind these payments are as guilty as the criminals in the region claiming to be militants. The NNPC officials who approved the payment of this protection fee should be made to face the law as well as refund the money. NNPC should tell us the leaders of these groups and who linked them with the organization. There are groups across all the nine Niger Delta states claiming to militant groups, did NNPC paid to all the groups in all these states. What values are NNPC promoting in the society, that this is a society that celebrates criminals, law breakers and deviants? Why would pipeline vandalisation abate when it is the quickest way to make money and get recognition from those in power and prominent members of the society? How can we be sure that NNPC officials do not instigate these gangs to sabotage oil facilities so that payment would be made and the staff would get their own cuts?

Why are pipelines and oil facilities still being vandalized or sabotage if this money was actually paid and to the right groups, if there are such groups? No group can lay claim of being in charge or in control of the region. Militants like criminal gangs have their own sphere of influence and you cannot exert authority where you are not in control. The recent clashes in Bayelsa was as a result of a group in Rivers that wanted to established a base in Bayelsa and the group there resisted them, especially as the overall leader of the group was not an indigene of Bayelsa. It was a war of supremacy, which is in street language “na our area be this.” The latest shooting and killing in Abonnema axis of Rivers State is a show of power between two rival groups over illegal bunkering territories. So if NNPC pays to one group and ignored the other; the other group would try to show relevance by sabotaging the oil facilities. This payment if it is true might have been responsible for the increasing number of militant camps and criminal gangs in the regions because all a group of young men has to do is to give themselves one name and claim independence and in charge of part of the Delta. Or a patron can fund a gang and then serve as a negotiator between this gang and NNPC or other organizations that want to deal with the militant groups. The payment can also be responsible for breaking away of members of militant groups or criminal gangs who are not comfortable they way their groups are run or felt cheated in the sharing of proceeds from their illegal runs.

Like former, State Security Services, SSS, Director in Rivers State, Alhaji Kolawole Adesina, now the agency director in Federal Capital Territory, those who negotiate with kidnappers should tell security agencies how they got to know the exact group that took a hostage and should reveal the persons they normally give these ransom to if they are not patrons or partners in crime. I would adopt this advocacy that the NNPC officials should tell us who they paid the money to. Was the money part of the NNPC budget and what the subheading for such expenditures was?

We have heard stories of how state governors, especially in the Niger Delta, fleece their states in the name of security votes. The Niger Delta crisis is now the fastest growing industry in Nigeria and those who are profiting from it would not like to see the end of it. These beneficiaries include security agencies, traditional rulers, youth groups and youth leaders, political leaders and office holders, Non Governmental Organisations among others. Security agencies are alleged to be churning out spurious security reports on a daily basis to justify the continued militarization of the region and the huge amount of money release to them by the various state governors.

The NNPC must tell us who are these groups and their leaders that are benefiting from the organization’s protection fee as it may hold the key to the solution of the Niger Delta crisis. More revelations may come out in relation to the funding of these groups besides the assumptions that they make money from illegal bunkering and hostage taking. We may also know who are the real patrons and sponsors of these groups and their sources of weapons. The Niger Delta crisis may be externally stimulated to create an atmosphere of insecurity and instability to divert investments to other parts of the country. Also money that could have been use for the development of the region would have be used to settle criminals (and their patrons) claiming to be fighting for the region. NNPC tell us the truth.