Oodua People’s Congress pulls out of pipeline protection arrangement over non-payment

YORUBA militia group the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) has pulled out of an agreement with the federal government to protect Nigeria's oil pipelines complaining that it had not been paid despite entering into an agreement on the deal three months ago.

 

In early March, President Goodluck Jonathan offered former Niger Delta militant leaders and the heads of the OPC new contracts to safeguard the country's waterways and oil pipelines. However, despite signing an agreement with the government to begin guarding Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipelines in March 15, the OPC is yet to receive a penny.

 

OPC leader Ganiyu Adams, who signed the deal with the federal government, had instructed his men to police oil pipelines across southwestern Nigeria and they have been doing so for the last three months. It had originally been feared that President Muhammadu Buhari would revoke the contract as it had been seen as an election bribe but now the OPC has pulled out of the deal itself.

 

OPC spokesman Yinka Oguntimehin, said that this became necessary because the corporation had yet to start paying for the work its men are doing. He added that the NNPC was, as part of the contractual agreement entered into, three months ago and OPC personnel had continued to guard the pipelines with the belief that the corporation would pay as promised.

 

Mr Oguntimehin said: “When we were given the contract on March 15, it was agreed that they will release money for the OPC personnel for effective protection of the NNPC pipelines nationwide. We lost one man last month because of the activities of the vandals here in Lagos, while some of our men were arrested in the course of protecting the pipeline.

 

“We had told them to release some of our money before the new administration took over but they kept promising us. Enough is enough, three months have passed since our members started monitoring the pipeline and we have fulfilled our part of the agreement."

 

Seen by critics as an election sweetener to get OPC support ahead of presidential polls, the deal according to sources involved them taking over the duties from the police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps. Already some highly placed persons in President Buhari’s camp with military and security backgrounds have begun to fashion out ways to scrap the deal and hand pipeline protection back to the security services.