From ERIC MOORE, Port Harcourt
Ogoni Host Communities Youth Leaders have threatened to shut down the Trans Niger Pipeline following the decision of the Federal Government to award the pipeline surveillance contract to a non-Ogoni indigenous contractor.
The group has called on the Federal Government to rescind that decision, saying it is unacceptable to Ogoni people.
Leader of Ogoni Host Communities, Teddy Green, in a statement, issued a 14-day ultimatum for the Federal Government to give the surveillance contract to an Ogoni indigenous contracting firm.
He said Ogoni youths will shut down the trans Niger pipeline after the expiration of the ultimatum.
On his part, Niger Delta youth activist, Dowell Badom, who is also the spokesman of the organization, also took a swipe at the Federal Government for the exclusion of Ogoni indigenous contractors in the award of the surveillance job
He said it is sad that despite the huge number of oil wells, manifold and trans Niger pipeline in Ogoni area, the federal government has snubbed them by giving out the surveillance contract job to outsiders.
The spokesman stated that it is important the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), National Security Adviser and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), allocate the Ogoni section of the surveillance contract to an indigenous firm.
Badom said: “It is imperative that the National Security Adviser, NNPCL and Shell allocates Ogoni section of the national surveillance contract to an Ogoni indigenous contractors.”