Pipeline surveillance contract: Eastern youths lament marginalization of Igbo

The Eastern Youth Coalition has lamented that Igbos are marginalized in pipeline surveillance contracts. Coordinator of the group, Comrade Edwin Nkwede, at a press briefing Tuesday in Abuja said the pipeline surveillance contract awarded by the federal government to certain companies and blocs cutting across Southern and Eastern states had generated controversy in the last […]

The Eastern Youth Coalition has lamented that Igbos are marginalized in pipeline surveillance contracts.

Coordinator of the group, Comrade Edwin Nkwede, at a press briefing Tuesday in Abuja said the pipeline surveillance contract awarded by the federal government to certain companies and blocs cutting across Southern and Eastern states had generated controversy in the last one year.

This controversy, Nkwede said, had led to agitations which are all centered on marginalization.

“Today, we are here as a group to decry the award of the contract spanning the eastern region (Igbo Land) which was awarded to a nonindigenous company.

“Our protest is even more germane now that the contract is to be renewed by the Federal Government,” he said.

The youths of the eastern region through the coalition therefore appealed to the federal government to:

“Prevail on the general contractors, to accommodate youths of this coalition which forms the mandate of the youths of the region.

“Prevail on the requisite offices and stakeholders responsible to award a subcontract from the existing contract which would soon be re-awarded, to a company of choosing of this coalition”

The group’s coordinator assured that, “in the event the youth groups are considered, it shall be our mandate to ensure proper community liaison for effective monitoring of crude oil facilities in the region.”

Secretary of the coalition, Comrade Agbawo Ahamefule, said: “We also wish to state here, categorically, that the Igbo land is too important in the scheme of things in Nigeria to be relegated so much so.

“We look forward to a swift response from the Federal Government in order to avert unnecessary agitations that may degenerate to breakdown of law and order in the region.”