Following the uproar generated by the oil pipeline surveillance contract awarded to an ex-militant leaders Government Ekpemopolo (aka Tompolo), the Special Assistant on Youth to the Interim Administrator of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Udengs Eradiri, said Tompolo followed due process before the contract was awarded to him.
Eradiri stated this while representing the Interim Administrator, NDDC, Dr Effiong Akwa, at the Gbaramatu Voice 7th Anniversary Lecture/Niger Delta Awards 2022 with theme ‘Oil Politics, Securing National Assets, Dependency, and Diversification’ held in Abuja.
Akwa, who commended Gbaramatu Voice for keeping up the media space and making the Niger Delta proud, promised that the NDDC will do its best to support it to be the flagship of the Niger Delta in the media space.
On the criticism that trailed the announcement of the contract award to a company that Tompolo has interest in, he said: “We have seen some videos but I see it as ignorance of the highest order. There are five contractors who bidded according to the Nigerian procurement process and won awards of contract.
“Tompolo, in his usual community development style, called his people to see how to stop the menace and let us work together.
“In a contractual process, you have to first register a company and follow the procedure. The NNPC’s rule in that contract is that you must sustain it for three months before you are paid.
“So if you don’t have ₦12 billion to sustain the project, you will never be given a contract.
“Unfortunately, our people don’t know that they have to organize themselves. I went to a militant camp where one (militant leader) said he has put dynamites in the whole area and he is going to destroy lives.
“I left Gbaramatu to talk to him. He was fuming, and I said ‘we will give you the contract’. I asked him, ‘do you have a company?’ He did not have.
“We should stop throwing stones, rather, let us work with our brothers.
“GbaramatuVoice needs to do a lot to inform our people because the man who is not informed is deformed.
“Please inform and educate our people about contractual process.
“The contract awarded to Tompolo or the person that is working with Tompolo is on stop-guard machinery within a period. ₦4 billion is no money because by the time they make expenses on various factors, nobody will save ₦100,000.”