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Nigeria: NNPC Denies Paying Militants N1.4 Billion
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Leadership (Abuja)
24 July 2008
Posted to the web 24 July 2008
Iyobosa Uwugiaren
Abuja
Following a threat yesterday by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), to attack oil pipelines in the next 30 days to prove it had not received payment from the government to end its campaign, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has issued a statement confirming that it did not make the payment.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Alhaji Abubakar Yar'Adua, was quoted by several newspapers yesterday as saying that the company had paid militant groups $12 million (about N1.4 billion) to protect oil facilities, including Chanomi creek pipeline in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.
Yar'Adua was reported to have told the House of Representatives Committee on Finance probing revenue earnings and remittances to the Federal Government between 1997 and 2008 on Tuesday that the NNPC had held talks with the militants and paid them funds so that it could repair the Chanomi pipeline.
"The price we pay is very high. It is difficult to get expatriates to work in the Niger Delta," he said. "We paid militants $12 million because we were losing $18 million to the problem of the Chanomi pipeline."
Successive administrations in Nigeria have effectively bought off the leaders of militant groups in the Niger Delta by offering financial rewards for laying down their weapons, a strategy known locally as "settling the boys."
But MEND, the main militant group in the area whose attacks have cut oil output by around a fifth since early 2006, said even if such payments were made, the money must have gone to criminal gangs and that genuine "freedom fighters" could not be bought off.
"MEND is aware that huge payments have been made to some criminal gangs in Delta State as a protection fee. MEND will never sell its birthright for a bowl of porridge," the group said in an emailed statement.
"To prove that we are not a part of this deal, the Chanomi creek pipeline and other major pipelines will be destroyed within the next 30 days," it said.
In an apparent reaction to MEND's threat, the Group General Manager (Group Public Affairs Division) of NNPC, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, said in a press release yesterday that at no time did the company make such payment to militants.
"We wish to state categorically that the GMD was quoted out of context, as the NNPC has never had any dealing with militants from the Niger Delta,'' he said. "Rather, the current leadership of the NNPC believes in constructive engagement of host communities of oil facilities.
"That was why, in the case of the Chanomi Creek, a construction company from the community was contracted to carry out the repairs of the vandalised pipeline in the Chanomi Creek at a cost of 50 million dollars."
Ajuonuma said an international company had demanded $107 million for the job.
"After Yar'Adua took over as GMD of the NNPC, the international company, which repaired the first point for 13 million dollars, had a problem with the host communities. This prompted the GMD to take a decision to get a local company with requisite technical capabilities to carry out the repairs within three months. The company completed the job on schedule, which encouraged the NNPC to award the contract for securing the pipelines to the same community-based company. This is simply part of our community policing policy and community empowerment plan."
Bomb attacks on pipelines in the Niger Delta, the hub of Africa's biggest oil industry, which produces around two million barrels per day, have disrupted supplies from the world's eighth biggest oil exporter and helped push global energy prices to record highs.
Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch Shell, whose facilities have been amongst the worst hit by MEND's campaign of sabotage, has a pipeline in the Chanomi Creek which feeds into the Forcados oil export terminal.
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has been under immense pressure to pacify the region and has promised to address the root causes of the unrest by bringing much-needed development to its impoverished and polluted villages.
For similar reasons, local youths have been employed as vigilantes to keep watch over oil pipelines and protect them from attacks by crude oil thieves.
But the line between criminality and militancy has become increasingly blurred and analysts say the strategy has exacerbated the problem, giving criminal gangs greater leverage and arming fighters with fluctuating allegiances.
The Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) was re-streamed in February following the successful repair of the vandalised pipeline.
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The pipeline was said to have been attacked at various sections in February 2006.
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