The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide and the Northern Defence Network have dissociated themselves from attacks by some groups against the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its group chief executive officer, Mr Mele Kyari.
A group, which calls itself ‘Coalition of GMD NNPC Mele Kyari Must Go’, had in a letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, demanded Kyari’s immediate removal from office.
It claimed that some ethnic youth groups and coalitions were part of the movement.
But the two groups in separate statements condemned and distanced themselves from the anti-Kyari movement, stressing that it was a ‘sham’ being sponsored and promoted by blackmailers.
The two socio-cultural groups further called on security agencies to arrest and prosecute the sponsors and leaders of the ‘faceless’ groups which they described as notorious in the business of blackmailing government officials.
A statement by the national president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike said the group was self-serving.
Okwu noted that contrary to claims, the NNPC under Kyari had indeed fared well.
Ohanaeze urged President Tinubu to ignore people who were masquerading to be protecting the interest of Nigerians but had their mission buried in the selfish desires of a few cabal in the oil and gas industry.
He said from 2019 till date, myriads of achievements had been made under Kyari.
On gas development, the Igbo youth group said Kyari leadership had among other things seen to the “final Investment Decision on the NLNG Train 7 Project in December 2019. The project is expected to generate over $20billion of revenue to the Government over the project’s lifecycle with 10,000 direct and 40,000 indirect jobs.
On its part, the chairman of the Northern Defence Network, Abubakar Nuhu Sani, called for the arrest of leaders of the ‘Kyari Must Go Now’ group in order to interrogate their motives of threatening to shut down Nigeria’s economic activities by occupying strategic national assets.
Sani said that “the authors of the senseless petition, apparently commissioned by self-appointed enemies of the NNPCL GCEO, in an attempt to rub President Tinubu in their unstatesmanlike, misguided misadventure, claimed to be his key supporters after which they threatened to mobilize and organize a one million youth march to compel compliance.
“Constituting themselves into an imminent national security threat and apparent saboteurs of the Tinubu administration, the authors of the felonious petition, some of whom claim to be lawyers, vowed to shut down such critical national economic assets as the East-West Road, the Benin-Ore Road, Abuja-Lokoja Road, the Asaba-Onitcha Road and mobilize another 5OO youths to shut down the NNPC Towers, Abuja,” he said.
According to Sani, these are actions that are not only felonious and sabotaging the nation’s progress but also pose a significant threat to national security.
“Therefore, it is imperative that these groups be dealt with accordingly to safeguard the nation’s economic stability and security.”
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