By Dickson Omobola

It was Friday, April 26, 2024, the road adjacent to Olu Palace Field in Warri, Delta State was in high spirits to a degree that attracted the attention of all who passed by.

On the ground, canopies were mounted; slowly, drums pounded; and the all-black speakers at the location boomed with gyration songs.

At the same place, whistling pierced the air, just as shouts of airlord were lifted to the sky by some aggressive baritone voices. However, it all turned out to be a fleeting spectacle as it disappeared with the night.

For, when this reporter got to Warri Boatyard, a few kilometres away from the Palace Field on Saturday, April 27, 2024, expecting to see something similar, he was greeted by a different sight.

At Warri Boatyard, the time was 12:20 PM. The ocean was absorbed in calmness, yet heavily occupied by fibre boats of different sizes. While sailors went about their jobs of transporting sea travellers to their destinations without fear, security operatives, including men of the Nigerian Navy, were on guard looking out for intruders.

At the shoreside were also stern faces, moving around to get set for the day’s business. Distressed by a rumour that required swift action, the serious-looking men, with the bulging veins on their foreheads, prepared themselves and this reporter for a trip to OML 40, the coastal communities in Warri, Delta State.

The communities that make up OML 40 include Deghele, Bobi, Bateren, Orubu, Olobe, Ugboegungu, Ugborodo, Osiye, Jakpa Tie, Jaka, Tebu, Deleoketa, Udo, Ajamita, Gbokoda, Ugboeyen, Bateren Tie, Orere, Obi Deghele, Obi Eyen, Opuama, Shekelewu.

The reason for the journey, according to those who spoke to this reporter, was to witnesss  and partake  in an ongoing protest against purported reports that the Federal Government and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, plan to withdraw the surveillance contract given to Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, PINL, in 2018.

After three hours of what felt like an endless, yet demanding endeavour on sea, we arrived at Gbokoda, where over 40 men, singing in their dialect and carrying placards with various inscriptions, urged Nigerian government and NNPCL not to withdraw the pipeline surveillance contract from PINL.

Achievements

A member of the community, Mr Bright Omaghomi, who spoke at the scene of the protest, told Sunday Vanguard that PINL had achieved so much in just a few years of being given the contract, saying federal government must ensure that PINL’s service was retained.

Omaghomi said: “As you can see from our placards, there are various inscriptions. The reality before us is we have a company that understands the social relationship that should exist between an oil servicing security firm that operates in a community like ours. We are here to say that this company has achieved so much for us in terms of engaging our teeming youths.

“And, of course, PINL has also created employment for our youths. All of these good works are the reason we want them to continue with us, so that our youths can be gainfully employed. It is not just about employment, you can see that they have also provided electricity for us. This is one of the things that should be looked at as one of the impacts of PINL in our community.

“For us, we don’t want an organisation that has made such an impact to leave our community. That is why we are protesting that the contract PINL is on that has enabled them to provide us with these benefits must be sustained either through the NNPCL or whoever is handling the contract. We urge the federal government to look into whatever issues or intricacies are involved and ensure that this contract is sustained, so that the host communities that are benefiting from PINL can continue to benefit.”

An employee of PINL in the Special Squad Patrol team, Mr Edmond Gbiaye, on his part, said: “We have been doing this for almost six years, and it has been going on fine. We are carrying out the pipeline surveillance job well. We don’t want any intruder to disturb PINL because they give this community some benefits. For instance, electricity. We need this work to go on.”

Source of income

 With the job at Gbokoda concluded, we proceeded to Deghele, where an employee of PINL, Mr Kingsley Maku, told Sunday Vanguard how he had been with PINL since the company commenced operations.

According to him, he could not afford to lose the job because it was the only source of income for him to provide for the needs of his immediate family.

Maku, who stressed that PINL had over 1,000 employees, said many of them would find it difficult to find other sources of income if the surveillance contract was withdrawn from PINL.

He said: “I have been with PINL since the company started operations. I have five children and an aged mother.  While my two daughters are in primary school, my eldest son is in secondary school. I also have two younger brothers whom I cater to. My two brothers are in Delta State University, DELSU, in Abraka. For now, I cannot afford to lose the job because it is my only source of income.”

Explaining further, Maku said PINL, through the contract, had, at various times, provided help for its employee, saying: “We work and we are being paid as and when due. The job we do here needs people to be on ground, and those who lead us are always there to ensure that the work goes on smoothly. We work day and night to ensure that there is no vandalisation and no smuggling of crude oil.

“However, what we hear now is that despite the good work, they want to take the contract away from our contractor. We are standing here to say no. We are standing here to say the contract must remain because this is our land. As a result of this surveillance contract, the Itsekiri people are living in peace. No gunshot, no bunkering and everybody has been living well.”

A representative of PINL, Prince Sunny Fregene, on his part, explained: “As it is said, the voice of man is the voice of God. What we are saying is that we want the NNPCL to renew this contract for us because we have been tested and trusted from when we started in November 2018. The people protesting today are workers. These are just some of them, some of them are at work. With this contract, a lot of people have been able to sustain themselves. If you look around, you would also notice that it has been able to reduce the criminal activities in the Niger Delta, particularly in this region.”

Experts wade in

Commenting on the development, an environmentalist and community leader in Warri Kingdom, Mr Collins Edema, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard argued that it would be wrong for the federal government to withdraw the surveillance contract from PINL.

Edema said if the contract was revoked, it could result in anarchy, stressing that the Nigerian state must help in treating old wounds rather than make the situation worse.

Edema, who cautioned against revoking the surveillance contract, warned that such reports should remain in the realm of rumours.

He said: “The federal government should never conceptualise or dream of doing that. As a surveillance company, PINL has done exceptionally well and should be rewarded. Let me state that the contract should not be taken from a company where the Itsekiri people have vested interest and given to a company where our neighbours have vested interest because it may lead to anarchy. I plead with government to help mend old wounds instead of re-opening them. To say that we (the Itsekiri) should manage the pipelines in Itsekiri land or Warri Kingdom cannot be overemphasised, especially knowing that this area, because of land and oil, has been bedeviled by inter-ethnic crises over the years.”

Also shedding light on the issue, a former Chief Consultant to Delta State Government on Ecology, Dr Hosanna Williams, explained that since the PINL commenced work in 2018, vandalism in areas where PINL secure had reduced, leading to increased crude oil production.

Williams said: “I speak authoritatively to back the work that this establishment is doing. This establishment commenced work in 2015; and from 2018 until now, there have been no skirmishes. It sounds absurd to begin to see and ask why this is coming now. As a scientist, I will tell you that the entire attack hinges on envy.

“It is preposterous, it is ludicrous and makes no sense at all. If perforation is occurring anywhere, there is something in the control room that would show deep pressurization, and it has not been like that. I therefore charge the authorities to come and see whether or not there has been perforations or hitches in the centres of operations in the pipeline areas. This is envy and I charge the federal government to discountenance whatever is going on and crush any form of allegation.”

Also speaking, Coordinator of Eweregbene community, Chief Sylvester Tiebebedigha, said the relationship the communities had with PINL had taken them to unimaginable heights.

Tiebebedigha said: “I want to inform the world, Nigeria and Delta State that the relationship our community has with PINL has taken us to the sky. I say this because for so many years the people of Eweregbene were not given any job along that pipeline until this establishment got the surveillance contract. Since then, they have been doing everything to secure these pipelines ensuring that vandals do not damage them.

“If anybody says Pipeline Infrastructure is not working, then the person is not in Delta State. Before they were given the contract, we could not fish on our rivers due to oil spillage. However, Pipeline Infrastructure changed the situation.”

Delta State govt endorses PINL

Meanwhile, Special Adviser to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Griftson Omatsuli, who threw his weight behind PINL, told Sunday Vanguard that the income Delta State generates from crude oil had improved due to the work put in by the surveillance outfit.

He said: “As far as Niger Delta is concerned, Pipeline Infrastructure is working in consonance with the MORE agenda of Delta State government. If anybody is talking negatively about what they are doing, they are just blabbing. What those people want to do is to truncate the Renewed Hope agenda of the federal government.

“Saboteurs, I beg you to put an end to this because as a result of the enhancement of economic activities in our various pipelines, the revenue base or the income of this state has improved. Today, Delta State is number one, and it is as a result of the total reduction in pipeline vandalisation, the development of our region and peace and security made possible by this establishment.”