Asari-Dokubo begs for payment

In what seemed a departure from his usual hard talking stance, former Niger Delta militant leader, Mujaheed Asari-Dokubo, made a plea to the Federal Government to pay contractors of the oil pipeline surveillance project in the country.

Asari-Dokubo, who is one of the beneficiaries of the pipeline surveillance contract by the Federal Government, said that the three-month deal elapsed on June 15.

He said that the ex-minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, did not sign for the payment of the pipeline surveillance contract before she left office.

The pipeline protection project, which cut across Lagos, Ogun, Bayelsa, Ondo, Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States, was executed from March 15, 2015 to June 15.

It would be recalled, that another beneficiary of the pipeline protection contract, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) had also said it is pulling its men from the job, because they had not been paid.

Asari-Dokubo urged President Muhammadu Buhari to pay the contractors their money if he was truly committed to the rule of law.

“Diezani (Allison-Madueke) did not sign payment for the contract before she left. All across the six states (Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa) where the contract was awarded none of us were paid; none of the companies were paid. The Federal Government should do what is needful by paying the money they owe. The same mandate that was given to Buhari to become President was the same mandate that was given to us in a legal and binding contract.

“If Buhari is law-abiding and if his government respects the rule of law, the contractual obligations will be followed. The contract was awarded to corporate entities by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. We did not go in as individuals and the corporate entities are regarded as individuals under the law. No contract was awarded to any specific individual,” he said.

The former militant added that he and other contractors would follow due process to get their money from the Federal Government.

He appealed to the President not to set a bad precedent where government will fail to pay contractors who had executed their contracts.

 
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