- As HOSCON, Traditional Rulers, Critical Stakeholders, Rally Round In Support
As Oproza, the country home of High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, becomes a Mecca of sort for thousands of people thronging in to express their support and solidarity with the winner of the multi-million naira oil pipelines Surveillance and Security contract, aka Tompolo has assured that the benefit of the job will be spread across the entire Niger Delta as everybody will be carried along.
Tompolo who disclosed this as part of his plan for the execution of the contract in Oproza, headquarters of Gbaramatu kingdom, Warri South West LGA on Thursday, stated that he will carry everybody along the project and ensure that it is all-inclusive, adding that the network of oil pipelines spreads across the Niger Delta from Ondo through Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and River State.
According to him, he is reaching out in consultation to all critical stakeholders from the region to ensure that everybody will be carried along and have a piece of the benefits acruable in the process of protecting the country’s critical oil infrastructure.
“We have pipelines all over the places, in Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers States. So, we need to spread it across to women, to the youths and even elderly people.
“Nobody can satisfy everybody and that is why I’m inviting everybody here. I’ve been in this struggle all these years and I know that greed is the cause of the problems in this country.
“If I say I’m the only contractor and choose to work with a few of my boys, it will not go down well with most people. So we need to spread and give whatever is due to everybody so that we can have peace”, Tompolo said.
Present in Oproza to express support and solidarity with with Tompolo is an array of traditional rulers from across the entire Niger Delta.
Fielding questions from newsmen after meeting with Tompolo, the Agadagba of Arogbo Ijaw Kingdom, Ondo State, HRM Pere Zaccheaus Egbunu, said that “it is that act of inclusiveness on the part of the contractor, that is Tompolo, to have embraced the traditional rulers and other stakeholders of the whole Niger Delta, because the man had reached out to the who-is-who in the Niger Delta.
“We are going to back him up in our various domains and we are going to set up some kind of committees to reach out. So if there is peace and orderliness, investors will be willing to come and invest” the Ondo monarch assured.
Also responding, the monarch of Idjerhe kingdom in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State, HRM Monday Obukowho Whiskey, expressed confidence that Tompolo will execute the project better because, according to the traditional ruler, he has done it before.
“This is a job he has done before and we are confident that he (Tompolo) can do it better provided the critical stakeholders are carried along like he is doing now. From every available fact, nobody that had done this job before did this wide consultation”, HRM Whiskey said.
Representatives of the Host Communities of Oil and Gas, HOSCON, also paid a visit to High Chief Ekpemupolo in his Oproza country home, Gbaramatu, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.
While delivering his speech at the occasion, the founding leader of the group, Chief Wellington Okirika, congratulated Tompolo on the award of the Pipelines Surveillance and Security Contract to him, adding that it was one of those issues which the group raised with President Buhari when they visited him in Aso Villa in 2018.
Okirika who expressed appreciation to President Buhari for considering Tompolo for the strategic project, also recalled that the President has done well even with the signing into law of the Petroleum Industry Bill, last year.
He however pleaded with President Buhari to fulfill other promises he had made to the people of the Niger Delta, including directing all that is due to the host communities producing oil and gas in the region to be paid directly to them without a third party.
“We are here as a delegation to pay a courtesy call to His Royal Majesty and to congratulate Tompolo, one of our best sons in the Niger Delta region on the award of the Pipelines Surveillance and Security Contract in the area.
“It is gratifying to note today that President Muhammadu Buhari has started fulfilling part of his promises to the Host Communities. The Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, is now being implemented as President Buhari has signed it into law. 3% of the operating budget of oil companies goes directly to oil and gas producing communities.
“Today, Pipelines Surveillance and Security Contract has been awarded to one of our finest sons in the Niger Delta region. We express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari and urge him to complete the fulfillment of his promises by ensuring that all that belongs to oil and gas producing communities are giving directly to them and not through a third party arrangement any more”, Chief Okirika said.
