N’Delta ex-agitators, firm clash over pipeline contract

Forum 10 months ago

N’Delta ex-agitators, firm clash over pipeline contract

The management of Zane Energy Nigeria Limited on Tuesday knocked the call by Niger Delta ex-agitators on the Federal Government to revoke the oil pipeline surveillance contract awarded to it.

The firm, in a statement by its Secretary, Mr Oruma Oghenetega, was reacting to breach of contract allegations raised against it by the Coalition of Urhobo and Isoko ex-agitators.

The Coalition of Urhobo and Isoko ex-agitators had accused the firm’s disparity in remunerations to ex-agitators, alleging that the company is owned by the immediate-past Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege.

The Chairman of the coalition, Godspower Okoro, had earlier called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the alleged ‘diversion/ suppression of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited pipelines surveillance slots’ belonging to them.

He said, “We, the coalition of Urhobo and Isoko ex-agitators, are calling on the President to intervene in division/suppression by NNPCL, which has brought much hardship and restiveness to Urhobo and Isokoland.”

But Zane Energ’s secretary described ‘tragic lies’ in a statement on Tuesday titled: ‘Re-Suppression of NNPCL Pipeline Surveillance Slots.’

The firm said, “The call by the group for the contract to be revoked is tantamount to taking politics disingenuously too far.

“The pipeline surveillance contract will always be the attraction of groups that see the initiative as just an avenue for making money without commensurate attention to the task in hand.

“This is where the sad call by the Urhobo and Isoko ex-agitators group for the contract to be revoked belongs. But it is politics taken disingenuously too far.

“It has become imperative for our organisation to put the facts out given that members of the group are motivated more by politics and their political sponsors.”

Oghenetega also refuted the claim that it is owned by Omo-Agege, saying the agitators were ignorant of the various operational platforms of the surveillance when it alleged that Zane Energy has disparity in the remuneration of ex-agitators.