By Kumo Amgbare
A group, the Movement for Sustainable
Development of the Niger Delta
(MSDND) has cautioned President
Bola Tinubu over the recent claims
by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Company Limited (NNPCL) and the
group managing director, Mr Mele
Kyari, of rising cases of illegal pipeline connections and refineries in the Niger Delta region.
According to the group, the outburst
of the NNPCL and Mr Mele Kyari is not
consistent with what is on the ground in
the Niger Delta region. It is a false battle cry meant to deceive and distract Tinubu and the Nigerian public.
It said the NNPCL and Kyari had
in a press statement claimed to have
uncovered 38 illegal pipeline connections and 108 illegal refineries between June 22 and June 28 and that they also claimed that the war on crude oil theft is in full swing, and that the NNPCL‘s collaborations with security agencies continue to record remarkable progress.
But MSDND, in a statement signed by its publicity secretary, Kelvin Orughoe, accused the NNPCL and Kyari of being desperate to hoodwink Tinubu and Nigerians with non-existent facts and pure lies which tag the millions of persons in the Niger Delta region as thieves.
Orughoe also argued that the NNPCL‘s
claim is based on an old playbook used
to deceive Nigerians every year for
the past eight years. He said the same
fraudulent scheme was used to deceive
former President Muhammadu Buhari
into agreeing to the non-remittance of
billions of dollars from crude oil sales
into federal government coffers for over
seven months.
He said, “We are writing to President
Bola Tinubu not to be deceived by the
false battle cry by the NNPCL using nonexistence numbers of illegal refineries and the so-called massive oil theft activities
