On Tuesday, two Northern organisations, the Coalition of Arewa Civil Society Groups and the Amalgamated Arewa Youth Groups, clashed over an N4 billion pipeline monitoring contract handed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Limited to ex-Niger Delta militant Government Ekpemupolo, also known as ‘Tompolo.’
While one side supported the contract being awarded to the Niger Delta warlord, the other urged for it to be revoked.
The Amalgamated Arewa Youth Groups protested the granting of the N4bn contract and demanded that the Federal Government and the NNPC rescind the deal or face legal action.
At a press conference in Kaduna, Abbas told reporters that there is a need to involve host communities in the effort to ensure proper safeguarding of government facilities, adding that it is past time for the government to reach out to respected people like Tompolo and other brave, gallant individuals to deploy their indigenous strength and expertise to assist traditional security agencies.
“Condemnation of the deal by certain parties from the north is unjustified,” he stated, “therefore we dissociate the decent people of northern Nigeria from such a myopic action by some nameless entity masquerading as Arewa.” It is important to note that the era of shadow chasing is over. What is expected of any concerned Arewa Group at this critical material time is to engage all concerned stakeholders from within and outside our region on how best to address the lingering problem of insecurity and bring it to a logical conclusion.
“To set the record straight, as of today, the issues affecting us (Arewa) include banditry, cattle rustling, kidnapping, and other manifestations of insecurity that have crippled our region’s economic activities, and if appropriate measures are not taken, nobody can predict our region’s faith in the next one year.”
