Read the piece below : Italians may have brought the mafia-like control to Rivers State . This is pinion piece from Tony Osborg: https://www.facebook.com/tony.osborg/posts/10155488233466026Governor Nyesom Wike is right in accusing multinational oil companies for sponsoring militancy/cultists in Rivers State.
I am going to mention names and explain how this is done inadvertently.
The major oil company operating in Omoku Area of Rivers State is Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) popularly known as AGIP. This Italian oil giant is notorious for many things, one of which is the award of pipeline surveillance contracts to the most notorious cultists/militants in its areas of operation. I suspect this is a company policy/strategy approved directly from Milan, the company headquarters in Italy to ensure continuous production of crude oil in a failed state like Nigeria.
This is how the strategy works.
Oil companies need unconventional protection of both their personnel and facilities. The federal government has consistently proved that it cannot offer such protection through its military. So what these companies do is allow militants/cultists prove their capability to control a particular oil territory by eliminating rivals and becoming 'Lord' of the area. Once your group is able to chase away other groups from a particular terrain and claim lordship, these oil companies will immediately recognize you and grant you your right of patronage; surveillance contracts!
Surveillance contract is one way they patronize you and it is worth hundreds of millions of Dollars for practically doing nothing. You do not have to do anything to get these monthly millions of Dollars.
All you need do is ensure that no rival group tampers with their pipelines or kills any personnel of the company. For as long as you can do this, you will get your millions of Dollars monthly!
In fact, these oil companies go an extra length to send truck loads of food items to militant/cultists camps during Christmas seasons! The locals can confirm this.
In Omoku area, I have seen a small boy fire bullets worth more than 250k in less than one hour and into the air for no reason. They just show up from nowhere and begin to spray bullets. The oil companies will pay in more dollars by month end after all. Oil money killing oil people. Will you not run mad if an oil company decides to you pay you half a million Dollars monthly for practically doing nothing?
The killings in Omoku area is not political. It is a supremacy battle for who controls the oil rich territory. I am from the area.
Yes. It is true that Wike and Amaechi once needed these boys for election purpose. They recruited them, armed them, paid them and used them. It is also true that Wike and Amaechi also paid them off after the election and even went further to disarm many of them (Wike did his own through a state government sponsored amnesty programme). Maybe in the future, they will need them again, but right now, those boys are not killing for Wike and Amaechi. They are killing to prove a point to their patron; the oil companies. I strongly believe this to be true even though I could be wrong.
Funny enough, the oil companies are not only guilty of this treasonable act. The federal government, yes, our own federal government also award surveillance contracts to these criminals/cultists/militants through NNPC, NDDC and the Presidency for the same purpose. That was how Tompolo was made and this APC/Buhari administration is doing the same thing to keep the crude oil flowing. NNPC can as well publish its list of contractors doing surveillance and let us see who they are.
One way the Presidency has been able to 'rent' peace in the Niger Delta is to award such surveillance contracts to the boys responsible for blowing up the pipelines. If your group is too strong for the DSS to crack, the NNPC will be sent to pacify you. The crude oil must flow by whatever means necessary. Like I said before, once you prove your worth as a deadly group, you will get recognition! That is the fastest way to become a billionaire in the Niger Delta Area.
If the federal government is serious about ending the killings in Omoku Area of Rivers state, this is what it should do.
Get the oil company operating in that area to release the list of contractors handling its unconventional surveillance contracts, the DSS should run a background check on the owners of such companies. If possible, freeze accounts like it is doing in the so called anti-corruption war.
If the plan does not back fire and the oil companies does not sabotage the process, peace will return to Omoku and other oil rich areas.
We have lost too many souls to the Omoku crisis.
The Nigerian government has failed the people of Omoku. How can a town with so much military presence be prone to mass shootings?
Something isn't right. In truth, there is no government in Nigeria and that is why cultists/militants have become the new governments in these areas and the oil companies have no choice but to recognize them. Their hands are tied.
If surveillance contracts must be awarded, it should be awarded to communities and not individuals. No man how big, can be bigger than his community.
Mind you, I am also an oil servicing contractor and I know the kind of preference these oil companies give to these militant contractors over us who offer real services. Some of these oil companies can owe you for two years for services rendered, but if you are a militant contractor, you get paid even before you begin work! The system is now that bad
If we do not restructure Nigeria, empower communities and entrench a proper system of government for everyone, criminals will continue to lead us at all tiers of government, starting from our very own communities.
May Peace return to Omoku and the rest of Nigeria and may our leaders have sense to see that all our national problems are rooted in our skewed unitary feeding bottle system of government.
#RestructureNigeria
#TrueFederalism This is from Naij Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers has accused the international oil companies operating in the state for the increase in cult activities that has seen to the death of many residents. Premium Times reports that Wike said this in reaction to the killing of 17 people by unknown gunmen in the state on New Year Day. The report quoted the governor as saying the oil companies in the state were awarding surveillance contracts to cultists who then use the money to buy sophisticated weapons with which they terrorise the communities and their victims.
Speaking when he received Abdulrahman Danbazzau, the interior minister, at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Friday, January 5, the governor reportedly told the minister that the security agencies in the state knew the cult kingpins terrorising various communities in the state. “The security agencies have the profiles of all cult kingpins in different parts of the state and they know their locations. “There is no wisdom in the politicization of security. Insecurity can affect anybody. You can never know the next victim of insecurity,” he said. He said his government had severally requested for the deployment of special squads to tackle cultism and kidnapping in the state to no avail. “The peculiar nature of Rivers state requires peculiar intervention. Before now, I have been shouting that we need support to fight crime,” Wike claimed accusing some unnamed politicians of using the killings to play politics and make false allegations. Dakuku Peterside, the director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) claimed cultism and cult-related killing in the state thrived because of the backing from powerful politicians. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigeria’s #1 new app “I have said it time and again that Governor Wike lacks the capacity and competence to guarantee the safety and security of Rivers people. “It is unfortunate that over 1,000 persons have been killed in questionable circumstances in the last two years under his watch. He should stop playing politics with the lives of Rivers people and face governance,” Peterside reportedly said. NAIJ.com earlier reported how some gunmen reportedly killed five residents of Egbeda community in Emohua local government area of the state. Police parade gang leader of Badoo Cult group in Lagos - on NAIJ.com TV Read more: https://www.naija.ng/1144511-wike-accuses-oil-companies-politicians-indirectly-funding-cult-activities-ri.html#1144511 For me , I think both Oil Companies and Wike are guilty |
