The Niger Delta People’s Assembly (NDPA) says those behind the protest calling for the sack of the Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), Mele Kyari over alleged malfeasance are frustrated illicit oil barons.
In a statement signed by the National Coordinator, Richard Okotie, and made available to journalists in Warri, Delta State, on Saturday, NDPA described the protest as a huge joke of some faceless interlopers.
“The act of organised protest has become a huge joke in the Niger Delta. How can anyone take what happened in Warri Delta State as a protest?
“Can few belligerent and ill-informed youths, holding placards in front of the NNPCL’s building that hosts the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream Petroleum Authority (NMPA) Warri, be referred to as a protest of a coalition of 26 youth groups?
“That was the charade that happened in Warri recently, which those who sponsored it called a protest asking for the probe and removal from office of the GCEO of NNPCL, Mele Kyari.
“The supposed coalition protest was indeed a joke in its entirety. It was an orchestrated fiction poorly steamrolled. It did not make the impact it was intended due largely to lack of numbers, coordination and purpose.
“The brain behind the wishy-washy outing was a first-class traditional ruler, who considers himself very smart and so wants to harvest without planting,” the group averred.
According to the group, “in a very poorly articulated address, they presented their grouse as financial impropriety; lack of vision, poor performance, autocratic conduct, among others against the NNPCL GMD. And this prompts the question of whether they are auditors appointed by Mr President to study the books of the NNPCL?
“On the other hand, it would have helped their protest if they had an auditor’s report indicting the GCEO of NNPCL
“NNPCL is the most probed and audited agency by other government institutions, such as the National Assembly. This is due to the oversight function exercise over it by NASS, and Mele Kyari has never been found wanting. Mele Kyari infact enjoys a clean bill of health.
“On the issue of refineries rehabilitation, the mischief makers and their sponsors need to be informed that the rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries is ongoing, with the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries to come on stream in December 2023.”
The group urged President Bola Tinubu to ignore the faceless groups allegedly sponsored by a monarch from the Niger Delta region.
“We implore Mr. President to ignore the media hype of the supposed protest. It was a frustrated monarch cutting his nose to spite his face, who was behind it.
“Mele Kyari should be preserved to continue his good works in the national interest.
“No one changes a winning team, rather, you strengthen it.
“Only individuals who engaged in unlawful activities and seeking unmerited favours that are afraid of Mele Kyari.
“And the oil thieves and those seeking to circumvent the law would continue to have reasons to be unhappy, with Mele Kyari enjoying a merited endorsement and backing of Mr. President in his patriotic zeal to rid the nation’s oil industry of all sharp practices associated with crude oil and petroleum products,” the group noted.
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