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From Joseph Obukata, Warri
A group, Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (CHURAC), has warned a faceless Niger Delta Youths and Stakeholders Congress to refrain from “politically motivated” smear campaign against the Executive Vice President of the Nigerian Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Tombomieye Adokiye, over alleged oil facilities sabotage.
CHURAC in a statement made available to newsmen in Warri on Saturday by its Board of Trustee’s Chairman, Cleric Ebikonbowei Alaowei, said the faceless group being sponsored by some vested interest coveting the office of Mr. Adokiye, kept raising unsubstantiated allegations of oil theft sabotage against Adokiye to the anti-graft commission.
The said group had in a petition dated January 28, 2022, addressed to the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, which was recently published in an online medium, alleged that Adokiye was deliberately sabotaging the Nigerian economy through alleged sponsorship of crude oil bunkering and theft and deliberately excluded core Niger Delta youths and other stakeholders from all NNPC concessional empowerment in the upstream subsidiaries.
They also alleged that Adokiye was plotting to incite, instigate protests and crisis in the Niger Delta region to create negotiation for his emergence as chief executive officer of NNPCL, claiming that they were being punished by Adokiye for their continuous and over bearing support for the Federal Government amongst other unlawful activities with evidence capable of creating a breakdown of peace in the Niger Delta.
CHURAC said that the allegations smacked of sheer blackmail, describing the seething attack as a handiwork of stomach hustlers and mischievous fifth columnists.
The human rights group, however, warned the said group to refrain from being used as pawn to rubbish the reputation of the only Niger Deltan holding such sensitive office in NNPCL, urging the EFCC to keep ignoring the purported petition by the group to shame those behind the blackmailers.
