The federal government has ordered the immediate dissolution of all Anti-vandal Squads of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) nationwide following allegations of misconduct and corruption against its officers
LEADERSHIP reports that this may not be unconnected with the outcome of discreet investigations carried out by the Corps’ top management to ascertain the level of involvement of officers in oil theft.
Announcing the dissolution as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday in Abuja, NSCDC commandant-general, Dr. Abubakar Ahmed Audi, who underlined the need for the Corps’ hard-earned integrity to be sustained, gave assurance that the anti-vandal units of the Corps would be reconstituted in due course.
He made the announcement at an emergency meeting with top management and all state commandants to review their performance and policies.
Audi, who threatened to use indicted officers as scapegoat to serve as a deterrent to other fraudulent personnel of the Corps, vowed to hand over anyone found wanting to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further action.
The commandant-general further said it was unfortunate and highly disgraceful for any officer of the law, who ought to be custodian of Integrity, truth and justice, to be seen negotiating and extorting money from the citizens they are meant to protect.
The NSCDC boss said, “Because there are insinuations that security agencies act as accomplices and because we want to redeem the image of the service due to reports received about our officers in the field, the federal government has directed that. that unit should be re-organised.
“We will be injecting fresh blood or fresh individuals. Those who have served, especially in the Niger Delta area, for six months to one year will be changed to halt compromise.
“As you already know, we set up various panels to investigate the various allegations of oil theft aided by our officers and we have received reports. For now, if you must reorganise a unit, you have to first and foremost dissolve the department to enable you to inject fresh blood.”
NSCDC has been the lead agency in the protection of critical assets and infrastructure of the government, such as oil and gas pipelines, telecom installations and other infrastructure.
The federal government recently gave marching orders to the Corps to wage full scale war against oil theft and illegal bunkering in the country.
Only recently, a viral CCTV video captured some personnel of the Corps allegedly extorting money from an independent petroleum marketer in Rivers State. The video came months after the Rivers State governor, Nyesome Wike, accused the anti-vandal unit of the Corps of operating illegal oil refineries and aiding and abetting other oil thieves as well.
Reacting to the video, the NSCDC boss had said, “Enough is enough. I will make scapegoats out of these bad elements within the system to serve as a deterrent to others like them if what is seen in that video is correct.
“I have given the investigative committee only one week to authenticate the video and submit their report which we shall act on with immediate alacrity.”
Meanwhile, following the controversial N4bn per month pipeline surveillance contract awarded to a firm in which Mr. Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) has interest, and revelations by controller general of the Nigerian Customs Service and the Chief of Naval Staff on the state of subsidy and stolen crude claims, a group, Concerned Northern Forum, on Sunday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The forum, in collaboration with other civil society groups in the region, at a press briefing tagged, “The State of the Nation,” held at popular Arewa House, Kaduna, specifically called for termination of the surveillance contract awarded to Tompolo and for the National Assembly to make the ongoing subsidy probe a public affair.
Before the recent award of the pipeline surveillance contract, a former leader of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), Mr Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, had been pushed out of the oil business.
Even the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), shortly after President Muhamadu Buhari took over power in 2015, declared him wanted in a case of conspiracy, illegal diversion of N34 billion, N11 billion, and N900 million, belonging to the Nigerian Maritime Administration Security Agency (NIMASA).
However, last year, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos found the allegations EFCC levelled against him to be fallacious, and discharged and acquitted him.
Tompolo bounced back to relevance last month when the NNPC Limited, after security checks, awarded a multi-billion-naira pipeline surveillance contract to five different companies, two of which he has an interest in in the Niger Delta. The NNPC Ltd will pay the companies per kilometre of pipeline based on performance.
Soon afterwards, some militant groups allegedly threatened the federal government, the minister of state for petroleum resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, and the chief executive officer of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, over the contract awarded to the said companies.
But Kyari has defended the deal, saying the need to involve “private contractors to man the right of way to these pipelines” informed the deal.
Also, the Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) criticised the federal government for the contract, but his Delta State counterpart, Ifeanyi Okowa, praised the contract, saying the federal government and the NNPC Limited had heeded his earlier call to award pipeline surveillance contracts to capable community stakeholders and contractors in the affected areas, including Tompolo.
