Niger Delta activist, Fejiro Oliver, has told a former militant leader, Asari Dokubo, that his alleged plot to take control of the Eastern Corridor pipeline contract would fail.
Speaking to reporters in Abuja on Tuesday, Fejiro maintained that every Niger Delta community should be given the opportunity to provide security for the pipelines that passed through their area.
Recall that the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III, had recently challenged Dokubo to show evidence of his allegation that the monarch and others received the sum of N2.7 trillion annually from pipeline surveillance contracts.
The Sole Representative of the Monarch to NNCL/JV Partners, Prince Collins Oritsetjmeyin Edema, threw the challenge in a statement on Tuesday following the allegation.
This was after Dokubo questioned the alleged award of pipeline surveillance contracts to some individuals and companies, accusing the Olu of Warri and others of receiving the said amount on a yearly basis.
Replying in the statement, Edema stated that Dokubo’s latest intervention cannot be divorced entirely from the persona he has cultivated over several decades, adding that his public image remains deeply associated with militancy, confrontation and an uncompromising style of political expression.
According to him, there are consequences beyond immediate argument when statements are made about the Olu of Warri, Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, PINL, Tompolo or other actors in a politically and ethnically sensitive environment.
Speaking on Tuesday, Fejiro came out with another angle to the story regarding pipeline surveillance contact in the region, narrating how he was among the first individuals who made the Federal Government to start awarding pipeline contracts to host communities.
“I didn’t also find it palatable that out of the three contractors engaged in the job, two are Ijaws with the last one being PINL led by an Edo, with the Olu of Warri who’s Itsekiri as chairman.
“Asari Dokubo is someone I respect and still respect as an elder in the struggle for resource control even though through militancy – a move that is now outdated and taken over by the pen and intellectual reasoning which people like myself and others now champion.
“He supported us in the call for decentralisation of the N2.1 trillion pipeline surveillance and made series of videos to that effect. It therefore becomes surprising to see that he is plotting to take [the] contract.
“Asari quotes N2.1 trillion paid to Tantita/Maton because I revealed the figures after my conversion of the dollar equivalent paid to the companies. He has never seen the contract papers. I have.
“To now come from nowhere and brandish a spurious amount of N2.7 trillion is distasteful and this is not a lie I will sit down and allow to publicly fly.
“The movement and I in particular do not support a hidden agenda of rage baiting the public with an untrue amount all for another Ijaw man in the person of Asari to take over the Eastern Corridor. I reject it completely and denounce it here and now.
“The Eastern Corridor Okunbo already gives the Itsekiris and Edo their own shares of the surveillance contract and should remain with them. It is the Urhobos, Isoko, Ilajes, Opobos, Bakassi, Ibibios, Efik and Ogonis who are yet to directly get the contract that should be crying to have a share and not Asari whose two Ijaw sons already control the majority.”
Pipeline contract: You can’t take over Eastern Corridor – Niger Delta activist dares Asari Dokubo