Calling for the dismissal of Mele Kyari is unreasonable – Ex-militant coalition

An ex-militant leader named Sobomano Jackrich, also known as Egberipapa, called on the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to fire, look into, and arrest Mele Kyari, the CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, in a section of the media. The Indigenous Niger Delta Coalition, led by Indimi Ekpo, has condemned the call, calling it unfortunate and ill-intentioned.

The coalition’s response was contained in a press release released in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Tuesday following a well-attended regional stakeholders’ meeting where issues of regional and national interests were the focus. The coalition noted that Mele Kyari had done nothing wrong in facilitating the partnership between Dangote Group and the NNPCL, saying it was done in the best interest of the country and her citizenry.

Only Nigeria’s enemies are alarmed by the Dangote Refinery’s construction, according to Ekpo, and this development marks the start of cooperation between the NNPCL and well-intentioned Nigerians who are prepared to conduct legal business in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

Despite not agreeing with “Egberipapa’s request for Kyari’s sacking,” the Coalition stated in its reaction that Egberipapa should be the subject of an investigation if anyone needed to be cleared of wrongdoing before the Nigerian public.

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The organisation argued that the government ought to shine a spotlight on the numerous privileges that Egberipapa is unjustly receiving under the Presidential Amnesty Initiative.

Ekpo challenged Egberipapa to inform the Nigerian public of how many slots were allotted to him in the Amnesty Programme if actually he is what intends to act, noting with alarm that, to the detriment of the “voiceless youths and ex-militants and persons denied of slots in the Amnesty Programme,” some ex-militant leaders have hundreds of slots to themselves alone.

The Coalition said that Egberipapa was organising a fruitless conspiracy against the NNPCL head because of “bellyache generated by the pipelines surveillance contract awarded Tantita Security Services.”

The former warlord made it crystal clear that “the contract has come to stay in the Niger Delta region,” adding that “no amount of such unjustified attacks on the person and office of Mele Kyari can stop the good works being executed efficiently by Chief Government Ekpemukpolo, a.k.a. Tompolo’s firm.“