…Say era of a single non-state actor holding unchecked authority over Nigeria’s most critical economic infrastructure must end.
..Seek recognition of Bibopere Ajube, Ateke Tom, Dokubo Asari, Victor Ben Ebikabowei efforts to salvage Nigeria’s economy from Niger Delta Avengers
By Ayorinde Oluokun
Community leaders, youth presidents, and ethnic nationality representatives from across the Niger Delta have demanded the immediate decentralisation of pipeline and oil and gas infrastructure surveillance contracts across the Niger Delta states and investigation into the management of the Presidential Amnesty Programme under its current coordinator.
This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of their meeting held under the aegis of The Niger Delta Stakeholders Forum and Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.
The communiqué was signed by 10 leaders representing the Ijaw, Ogoni, Ibom, Ikwerre, Isoko, Urhobo, Ndokwa, Oro-Obolo, and other nationalities across the region.
The Forum warned President Bola Tinubu that the present concentration of the pipeline protection contract in a single company may lead to re-enactment of the disastrous Niger Delta Avengers scenario which led to collapse of crude oil production to 900,000 barrels per day, and sent the national economy into a tailspin less than a decade ago.
Speaking at the meeting, Dr. Alaye Tari Theophilus, President of the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide and a signatory to the communiqué, was unequivocal: “We are not here to threaten anyone. We are here because we have seen this before. We lived through it. We know exactly what the early signs look like, and every single one of those signs is present today. The President must act now, not later.”
While backing up their concerns with historical records, leaders at the forum recalled that Nigeria was able to attain crude oil production averaged 2.4 to 2.5 million barrels per day under a decentralised, state-by-state pipeline surveillance structure operated under the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
The forum that the reversal of the arrangement when the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration came to power in 2015 and decided to send the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC after some the contractors led to disastrous consequences for the country.
The leaders noted that while some of the contractors accepted the scrutiny of their operations, others retreated to the creeks to form the Niger Delta Avengers to sabotage Nigeria’s oil production.
“Production fell to approximately 900,000 barrels per day at the height of the crisis, a loss of more than 1.5 million barrels per day and billions of dollars in revenue that every Nigerian felt,” the forum said.
The Forum also recalled that the situation was not salvaged by a government policy or a military operation, but by deliberate, coordinated action of specific who chose the patriotic path and prevented the ravage of the entire Niger Delta region by the group.
“Senior High Chief Bibopere Ajube physically blocked the critical waterways linking Edo, Delta, and Ondo states, cutting off any route for the crisis to spread into the Southwest corridor. King Michael Ateke Tom held Rivers State firm. King Dokubo Asari blocked the Kalabari axis. Chief Victor Ben Ebikabowei aligned with government containment efforts at personal risk. These men drew a line and kept it. Nigeria survived because they did,” the Nigeria Delta leaders said.
The forum lamented that the leaders who took the courageous steps of protecting the nation from economic devastation have been sidelined with the current centralization of pipeline surveillance contracts, which, according to them excluded those deeply invested in the region’s stability.
The furum also alerted the nation that the entities currently given pipeline surveillance contract are better funded, better organised, and more technologically capable than at any point in the post-amnesty history of the Niger Delta.
They noted for instance that at a National Assembly roundtable held on April 8, 2026, the company had displayed night vision drones capable of being launched from moving vehicles and other sophisticated weapons.
But they warned that President that there is no any accountability framework to govern the use of such equipment or constitutional obligation to bind their operators to the Nigerian state.
“The forum puts the critical questions directly to the President. If this arrangement collapses, who restrains these actors? If their interests diverge from the state’s, who stops them? If they choose to set the Niger Delta ablaze, who stands between them and the rest of Nigeria? The men who answered those questions in 2016 are the same men now being locked out of the system.
“This does not strengthen national security,” the communiqué states. “It places national security in the hands of non-state actors and exposes the Nigerian state to the risks of their discretion.”
The Forum also linked the alleged corruption in Presidential Amnesty Programme to the pipeline surveillance contract.
According to the forum, the Amnesty Programme is now being used as an instrument of targeting against stakeholders who have publicly advocated for decentralisation, subjecting them to subtle forms of pressure and exclusion rather than the inclusion and protection the programme was established to guarantee.
They noted that while ordinary beneficiaries under the programme have continue to receive a fixed monthly stipend of N65,000 since 2010 despite punishing inflation, naira devaluation, and rising cost of living, the programme’s annual budget has reportedly ballooned beyond N100 billion in the same period.
But they lamented that a camp of an ‘influential leader’ has received payment increases exceeding 500 percent while the rest of the region remains stagnant at the 2010 rate till date.
The forum therefore called on President Tinubu to direct the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission, ICPC, to carry out a thorough investigation into the utilisation of funds allocated to the Presidential Amnesty Programme since the inception of Dr. Denis Otuaro’s administration as coordinator.
“The Presidential Amnesty Programme must never be used, directly or indirectly, as a tool of vengeance, intimidation, exclusion, or political retaliation against stakeholders who chose accountability over rebellion,” the communiqué states.
The Forum listed its four demands to include the decentralization of the Pipeline and oil and gas infrastructure surveillance on a state-by-state basis under a unified national framework coordinated by the Nigerian Armed Forces. This, they contended will bring accountability, transparency, and operational discipline into the framework from the outset.
“The era of a single non-state actor holding unchecked authority over Nigeria’s most critical economic infrastructure must end.
“A joint supervisory structure must be established without delay, bringing together security agencies, state coordinators, and recognised community leadership to provide independent oversight of all surveillance operations. Claims of operational discoveries, particularly around the Escravos axis, must be independently verified.
They also called for through investigation and urgent reform of the Amnesty Programme to ensure that beneficiaries’ stipends reflect present economic realities and end to selective sharing of its resources.
The Forum also asserted that leaders and communities that stood with Nigeria in 2015 and 2016 by refusing to join destabilising activities and actively prevented the spread of economic sabotage, must be recognised, protected, and included in whatever security architecture replaces the current pipeline protection arrangement.
“They must not be targeted, excluded, or left behind,” the Forum said while warning that lack of response to the demands may put not just the Niger Delta, but the entire country.
“The Niger Delta has seen crisis before. We know the signs. If the current trajectory is not urgently corrected, the consequences may once again be severe, not just for the Niger Delta, but for Nigeria as a whole,” the Forum warned.
