The Federal Government has moved to deny reports that it planned to relocate the Petroleum University from Effurun, near Warri in Delta State, to Kaduna State.
The reported plan had sparked off controversy, with South-South governors reacting with a threat to back out of Abuja’s amnesty deal with militants.
Yesterday, an amalgam of militant bodies in the Niger Delta, the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), gave AFREN Energy Resources – where the Petroleum Minister Rilwanu Lukman allegedly has interest – 72 hours to leave the Niger Delta or face untold consequences.
And in Abuja, the South-South Parliamentary Caucus in the House of Representatives demanded the sack of Lukman over recent policy decisions of the Federal Government, especially on the Petroleum University.
But the Minister of State for Niger Delta, Mr. Godsday Orubebe, has denied the relocation report, putting it down to the figment of imagination of certain “mischievous politicians and authors of confusion” who were desirous of throwing spanners into Federal Government’s “good works on restoring enduring peace to the oil-rich region”.
Orubebe, while exchanging views with newsmen in Asaba, Delta State, yesterday, said whatever plans the Federal Government had concerning the upgrading of the Petroleum College in Kaduna were without prejudice to plans for upgrading the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) in Effurun initiated by the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to Orubebe, “The Federal Government has not removed any university (from Delta State). The Petroleum College in Kaduna has been in existence since 1995. The previous administration of Olusegun Obasanjo had approved the reactivation of the Petroleum College in Kaduna and that of PTI, Effurun. But it was only that of Effurun that was done at that time.
“It is now that that of Kaduna is being carried out. The government of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has not done anything new. Some people are just talking about what they do not know. They should learn to study and look at documents closely before they talk to incite the public. It is sad that that people who are supposed to know are the rumour mongers.”
Orubebe’s explanation would seem to contradict the position of Lukman who had explained that the city that hosted the petroleum college where he (Lukman) schooled did not have a drop of oil, thereby defending the choice of Kaduna.
The amalgam of militant bodies in the Niger Delta said they would have bombed Lukman’s company for his alleged anti-Niger Delta posture but for the respect they had for the late Aret Adams (former Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who was from Delta State) “with whom Lukman’s company transacts a lot of business.”
The spokesperson of JRC, Cynthia Whyten, described Lukman as an “ungrateful man” for which reason his company must leave the region, adding that at a time when the people were crying of lack of federal presence, he was further pursuing an agenda that would not be in their interest.
“On behalf of the Joint Revolutionary Council, comprising the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, The Reformed Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force and The Martyrs Brigade, we hereby issue a 72-hour ultimatum to AFREN Energy Resources (owned by the Petroleum Minister of the Nigerian State, Alhaji Rilwanu Lukman) to vacate all its operations in the Niger Delta.
“Rilwanu Lukman is an ungrateful man. AFREN Energy Resources must leave the Niger Delta immediately. But for the respect and privilege we owe the late Dr. Aret Adams, whose company AMNI International has dealings with the dubious AFREN Energy Resources, we would have bombed AFREN’s Armada Perkasa FPSO which today sucks our oil via the Okoro Setu development field owned by AMNI International in the Eastern Obolo area of Akwa Ibom State,” they said
On the ministers from their region, they said: “We wish to condemn with great vehemence, the southern elements in the so-called Federal Executive Council who sat still while Rilwanu Lukman and his evil cabal read out the riot act for the reversal of the planned upgrade of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) in Effurun, Warri even after the Delta State government had authorised a contribution of about two hundred and fifty million naira (N250m) for the quick take-off of the upgrade project.
“In particular, we condemn the likes of Godsday Orubebe (Delta State), Diezani Allison-Madueke (Bayelsa State), Grace Ekpiweren (Delta State) and Odein Ajumogobia (Rivers State) who have turned out to be rubberstamps and a disgrace to the people whose interests they ought to protect by any means possible. These people are a disgrace.”
Chairman of the South-south Parliamentary Caucus of the House of Representatives, Chief Andrew Uchendu, said when good decisions were taken at the wrong time, it was bad enough not to talk of when wrong decisions were taken at the right time, pointing out that the re-location of the Petroleum University to Kaduna at the same time more than 50 per cent of officials of the NNPC from the South-south region were affected in the sack spoke volumes.
He also said he led a delegation to the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) where they discovered that the executive secretary of the Fund and other executive members from inception have been from a particular region of the country which is not fair.
The South-South caucus in the House of Representatives asked for Lukman’s sack just as a non-governmental organisation, Publish What You Pay (PWYP), joined the campaign for his removal, alleging that his actions on both the relocation of the University of Petroleum as well as the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) were provocative and a disservice to the nation.
The caucus said the announcement of the Federal Government’s decision to relocate the university had not only ignited a fresh crisis of confidence in the Niger Delta region but threatened to jeopardise the ongoing amnesty programme that appeared to have brought some semblance of peace in the last couple of weeks.
Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Air Force, Hon. John Halims Agoda, who spoke on behalf of the caucus, said that although the position of the people of the region had been made known through the South-South Forum, it did appear as if the decision both in its context and timing was intended as “a political missile to spite the Niger Delta and dare whoever has any objection” to it.
Agoda, at a news conference, said the move to relocate the university to the home state of Lukman was not only indecent and repugnant to public taste but offends the core values of governance.
Meanwhile, spokesman for PWYP, Mr. Uche Igwe, said the decisions were “sad and a dangerous attempt by the Federal Government to undermine peace in the trouble oil rich region. That means that the amnesty was just given with the right hand and a lot more things taken with the left hand. The Niger Delta needs that University to help combat unemployment, to give it some federal presence and to use it for training the manpower that would run the oil industry domiciled in the Niger Delta.”
Jul282009