Niger Delta ex-agitator Endurance Amagbein has cautioned the leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, against politicising the plight of the Niger Delta people over issues surrounding renewal of pipeline surveillance contracts with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL.

In a statement on Saturday, Amagbein condemned IYC leaders who took a protest to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, demanding the sack of Bayo Ojulari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited.

The IYC had claimed that the protest was due to non-performance, financial mismanagement and other allegations, but Amagbein refuted the claims.

Amagbein accused the IYC of derailing from its core mandate and delving into partisan oil surveillance politics.

“Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil); Dr Samuel Ogbuku, MD/CEO of NDDC; and Chief Dennis Otuaru, the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, are all Ijaw people, but sadly, nobody remembers this to thank Mr President.”

“It is so said that oil politics in the Niger Delta has infiltrated into the affairs of the IYC, and its leaders have allowed surveillance contractors to direct policy statements of the youth body.”

The Tide source reports that Ojulari had said NNPCL is under attack over his leadership stance.

The National Orientation Agency, NOA, has begged Nigerians to be patient with President Bola Tinubu’s administration, saying that his reforms and initiatives would in no distant time transform the nation’s economy, security and social landscape.

The Akwa Ibom State Director of NOA, Mkpoutom Mkpoutom, made the appeal in Uyo at the weekend during a sensitization programme organized by the Federal Information Center with focus on the milestones of Tinubu’s administration.

Mkpoutom, who was represented by Mrs Atim Otoyo, Deputy Director Planning, Research and Strategy, recalled that Tinubu on assumption of office on May 29, 2023, had embarked on ambitious reforms and initiatives that would better the lives of Nigerians.

He said the President’s focus is on revitalizing Nigeria’s economy by swiftly addressing the fuel subsidy crisis that had long plagued the nation’s finances.

According to him, by removing fuel subsidies, resources are now reallocated towards critical areas such as infrastructure and social welfare programs.

“This bold decision, although met with public discontent due to rising fuel prices, was a necessary step towards fiscal responsibility,” he said.

Mkpoutom also stated that security remains a paramount concern in Nigeria, stressing that Tinubu’s administration has prioritized the issue since the onset of his administration.

“His administration has focused on strengthening the military and security agencies to combat terrorism, banditry and separatist movements. This includes boosting funding for the Armed Forces and implementing community policing strategies to foster better relationships between law enforcement agencies and local communities.

“President Tinubu’s administration has championed various projects aimed at improving transportation networks, electricity supply, and public amenities as well as initiating programs to create technological hubs to promote digital literacy among young Nigerians,” the NOA official said.

The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, CNPP, and the Coalition of National Civil Society Organisations, CNCSOs, have called on President Bola Tinubu to launch a full scale judicial investigation into the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL.

They said the call became necessary following recent revelations made by the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari.

Ojulari, in a meeting with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, on August 29, according to the group, exposed deep rooted corruption and operational decay within Nigeria’s refinery system particularly the Port Harcourt Refinery.

In a joint statement released on Sunday, and signed by CNPP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, James Ezema and CNCSOs National Secretary, Ali Abacha, the two groups urged the president to urgently address what they described as a systemic rot in the oil sector.

According to them, Ojulari disclosed that the NNPCL had been losing between N300 million and N500 million monthly at its refineries, despite injecting nearly 950,000 barrels of crude oil of which, only 40% is reportedly processed. The poor performance, they said, reflects years of mismanagement and deliberate sabotage.

The statement also quoted Ojulari as revealing that the Port Harcourt Refinery’s so-called “old” and “new” units were designed to function as a single integrated system not separately, as previously claimed. This misunderstanding, allegedly sustained through strategic misinformation and neglect, has seriously hampered rehabilitation efforts.

While commending Ojulari’s courage and transparency, he described his disclosures as a validation of their long standing warnings about entrenched corruption under former NNPCL leadership.

“Efforts to expose these schemes in the past were met with media blackouts, intimidation, and suppression. profit claims made under Kyari were “absurd” and contradicted by soaring subsidy payments”,the groups lamented.

The coalition argued that Nigeria’s persistent economic hardship is inextricably linked to unchecked corruption within the NNPCL.

They insisted that unless the petroleum sector is fully cleansed, the country would remain mired in poverty, inefficiency, and dependency on fuel imports, calling for a comprehensive, independent, and transparent judicial inquiry into NNPCL’s operations from 2017 to 2023.

The group also asserted that the scale of alleged corruption is beyond the scope of conventional anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The groups further demanded the arrest and prosecution of Mele Kyari, citing unresolved allegations including fraudulent subsidy claims, shady crude swap deals, and missing oil revenue.

The CNPP said failure to act, would amount to a dangerous endorsement of impunity.