Skip to main content

HOSCON seeks to takeover pipeline surveillance contracts

HOSCON seeks to takeover pipeline surveillance contracts

Niger Delta leaders give condition for termination of amnesty programme

Oil-bearing communities, under the aegis of Host Communities of Nigeria, Producing Oil and Gas, HOSCON, has called for the termination of all existing oil pipeline surveillance contracts across the country, accusing the current contracts of fuelling crisis in the Niger Delta.

Speaking to Vanguard in Abuja, National Chairman of HOSCON, Dr Mike Emuh, also accused the government of violating the provisions of the local content initiative by awarding Nigeria’s waterways’ surveillance contract to an Israeli firm.

He said: “Some of the existing contractors have constituted themselves into cabal and principalities; they are the problems of the Niger Delta. They rank among the most corrupt entities. How can you pay over $20 million to a contractor every month in the name of pipeline surveillance, along numerous oil mining leases as far as to the Trans Forcados Pipeline, TFP.

“This is just only one or two individuals making this huge amount of money every month, while the masses, especially the youths, are suffering. This was what made us to engage 10 persons each from oil-bearing and impacted communities, to make up the 10,000 youths we are advocating should be given the contracts. It is crucial to inject new blood and new vigour into the system.

“Another government agency has a security arrangement whereby it pays about $20 million monthly to an Israeli firm. Why not follow the Nigerian Content Act by giving that contract to Nigerian firms. The contract is seemingly to guard against piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

“The Minister of Transportation needs to look into this issue to know why we are paying this huge sum of money to an Israeli firm. HOSCON is drawing the attention of the Minister of Transport to that contract.

“We are also asking the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources to make sure that pipeline surveillance contracts are awarded to host communities.

ALSO READ: National Gas Expansion Programme: President Buhari to launch autogas scheme Dec 1

He should not be seen to be collaborating with the contractors, who have formed themselves into a cabal, and who are destroying the system through the surveillance contracts.

“The government should give pipeline surveillance contracts to the host communities so that the 10,000 youths that had been engaged and trained in readiness for this duty would resume work.

“The government should give at least 40 per cent of the pipeline surveillance contracts to the host communities; leave 40 per cent for existing contractors and 20 per cent for new contractors.

“Host communities know the contractors in charge of pipeline surveillance and maintenance; we know those involved in bush loading, oil theft; owners of shuttling vessels and the brains behind illegal refineries.”

He called on the Federal Government to implement the four-point demand of HOSCON, adding that the ceasefire agreement reached with the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers, RNDA, militants and youths of the Niger Delta should be respected.

Vanguard News Nigeria

The post HOSCON seeks to takeover pipeline surveillance contracts appeared first on Vanguard News.


by Rasheed Sobowale via Vanguard News https://ift.tt/3o8H8yk Wikipedia Our Friends From Virginia
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hundreds of protesters storm Seplat oil facility in Delta

  By Paul Olayemi Hundreds of protesters from Ikweghwu community in Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State, stormed a crude oil facility owned by Seplat Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, on Thursday morning, demanding for jobs and infrastructure development. The protesters, who stormed the facility as early as 6 am, lamented that they were not benefiting from the community’s oil wealth, and demanding an end to what they tagged, oppression and intimidation from the management of the company, ALSO READ:  Protesters storm Ebonyi court over judge’s recusal from PDP case The protesters with inscriptions like ‘ we can’t be suffering in our own land’, ‘we need our Memorandum of understanding now’ ‘We need access control’ ‘8 years of slavery, we say no’ and so on, on their placards, danced at the company’s entrance with a DJ providing music non-stop preventing access to the facility. President General of the Community, Comrade David Uyelaju, said they need a clearly written Mem
Post a Comment
Read more

COVID-19: 10m cases globally, as US, Europe account for over 50 percent

More than 10 million cases of the new coronavirus have been officially declared around the world, half of them in Europe and the United States, according to an AFP tally at 0930 GMT Sunday, June 28, based on official sources. At least 10,003,942 infections, including 498,779 deaths, have been registered globally. Europe remains the hardest hit continent with 2,637,546 cases including 195,975 fatalities, while the United States has 2,510,323 infections including 125,539 deaths. ALSO READ:  COVID-19: Women’s jobs disproportionately affected, more to go — ILO Boris Johnson’s government is set to ease virus lockdown restrictions by opening pubs, restaurants and hairdressers among others across England from July, despite predictions of a second wave. The rate of infections worldwide continues to rise, with one million new cases recorded in just six days. The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probab
Post a Comment
Read more

COVID19: No request from Nigerians abroad for evacuation ― Foreign Minister

Minister, Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, says his ministry has not received any request from Nigerians aboard for their evacuation in view of the global Novel Coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic outbreak. Onyeama made this known on Tuesday in Abuja at the Presidential Task Force briefing on update of COVID-19 in the country. “As of now, we do not have any request from any of the embassies from Nigerians wishing to be evacuated from various countries. “But certainly, if we receive notification from any of our embassies, we will react accordingly,” he said. The minister, responding to an allegation, said it was not true that a Nigerian lady and her husband were poorly treated in Lome, Togo, while on their way back from Brazil, through Addis Ababa, to the country. He said that the Government of Togo was placing anyone coming from a foreign country in isolation, saying that they were rightly placed in a four-star hotel. “They wer
Post a Comment
Read more