Niger Delta youths on Wednesday took to the streets of Warri, Delta State, in protest demanding the sack of the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL), Mele Kolo Kyari.
The protesting youths, under the aegis of Niger Delta Youth Alliance, bore placards with various inscriptions and chanted solidarity songs as they marched from the NPA Road to the office of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) in Warri.
Daily Post reports that some of the inscriptions on the placards included ‘Demanding accountability, Mele Kyari must go’; ‘Citizens unite for the sack and probe of NNPCL leadership!’; ‘Stop the rot! Remove Mele Kyari from NNPCL’, among others.
Apart from their demand for President Bola Tinubu to sack Kyari for alleged corruption in the management of the national oil company, the youths also urged Tinubu to probe the management of NNPCL under Kyari.
“We fervently implore President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take immediate action to remove him (Kyari) from office and institute a comprehensive inquiry into his conducts,” the National Coordinator of the Niger Delta Youth Alliance, Comrade Bakpa Orerhime, said in an address.
Orerhime, who was flanked by Dudun Oritsegbubemi Patrick and Sunny Aluma, expressed displeasure at the state of Nigeria’s non-functioning refineries, saying it was a sign of “a glaring deficiency”.
“The NNPC boasts of four refineries , two in Port-Harcourt and one in Warri and Kaduna. Regrettably, despite the staggering allocation of N100 billion for refinery rehabilitation in 2022, these facilities, with a combined production capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, have failed to produce any refined products for the past several years,” Orerhime said.
“This lamentable situation has forced Nigeria, the continent’s largest oil producer, to heavily depend on imported petroleum products due to the NNPC’s inability to operate its refineries efficiently.
“As a result, the nation’s economic backbone in this vital sector would tether to fuel prices and supply. As a expected, a disruption in this vital sector would undoubtedly plunge the entire economy into a state of peril, a scenario we are already witnessing,” he said.
Orerhime alleged that there were irregularities in the award of oil production contracts by the NNPCL, saying the irregularities cast a shadow of opacity over remittances to the Federation Account, giving rise to grave concerns about transparency and accountability in those financial transactions.
“Like the dubious procurement of pipeline surveillance contracts, void of a transparent selection process, it has sparked a multitude of questions about the responsible management of these critical responsibilities,” the Niger Delta youth leader said.
“As responsible and dedicated Niger Deltans, we vow to uphold the law and employ peaceful demonstrations as a means to beseech President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to remove Engr. Mele Kyari from his position and launch an investigation into the leadership and management of NNPCL under his stewardship, specifically addressing the urgent issue of refinery revitalisation,” he said.
The address was co-signed by the National Chairman of Niger Delta Women for Change (NDWC), Bridget Ogjenekohwo; the President of the Niger Delta Youth Empowerment Network (NDEN), Comrade Elvis Abebiyein; and the Regional Coordinator, South-South United Youth Association (SSUYA), Comrade Peter Okprogboro.
