A group, The Amalgamated Arewa Youth Groups, on Thursday, vowed to mobilise no fewer than 10,000 youths to protest the award of N4 billion pipeline surveillance contract to repentant Niger Delta militant, Mr Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The group said occupying the NNPC in Abuja became imperative just to protest the alleged injustice against the North.
The AAYG also accused the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, of allegedly playing the ethnic card by surrendering the “security of the economic valves and nerves” of the country to Tompolo, which it said was not in any way different from the call to hire mercenaries to tackle terrorism or banditry in the North.
The group had handed down a seven-day ultimatum within which the Federal Government or its agent (the NNPC) should revoke the contract or be forced to either protest or take legal action.
Already, the group, comprising 225 youth organisations from the northern states and the Federal Capital Territory, has officially written the Nigeria Police Force, Abuja, of the proposed protest slated for Tuesday.
The letter, dated August 22, 2023 and signed by the Convener of the group, Mock Kure, and obtained by The PUNCH, was titled, ‘Notice of protest over the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) by the Federal Government of Nigeria and the NNPC Limited, effective from Tuesday, August 30, 2022,’ and copied to the FCT Police Command, the Director of the Department of State Services and the NNPC Limited.
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