N�Delta ex-agitators, firm clash over pipeline contract

The management of Zane Energy Nigeria Limited on Tuesday knocked the call by Niger Delta ex-agitators on the Federal Government to revoke the oil pipeline surveillance contract awarded to it.

The firm, in a statement by its Secretary, Mr Oruma Oghenetega, was reacting to breach of contract allegations raised against it by the Coalition of Urhobo and Isoko ex-agitators.

The Coalition of Urhobo and Isoko ex-agitators had accused the firm�s disparity in remunerations to ex-agitators, alleging that the company is owned by the immediate-past Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege.

The Chairman of the coalition, Godspower Okoro, had earlier called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the alleged �diversion/ suppression of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited pipelines surveillance slots� belonging to them.

He said, �We, the coalition of Urhobo and Isoko ex-agitators, are calling on the President to intervene in division/suppression by NNPCL, which has brought much hardship and restiveness to Urhobo and Isokoland.�

But Zane Energ�s secretary described �tragic lies� in a statement on Tuesday titled: �Re-Suppression of NNPCL Pipeline Surveillance Slots.�

The firm said, �The call by the group for the contract to be revoked is tantamount to taking politics disingenuously too far.

�The pipeline surveillance contract will always be the attraction of groups that see the initiative as just an avenue for making money without commensurate attention to the task in hand.

�This is where the sad call by the Urhobo and Isoko ex-agitators group for the contract to be revoked belongs. But it is politics taken disingenuously too far.

�It has become imperative for our organisation to put the facts out given that members of the group are motivated more by politics and their political sponsors.�

Oghenetega also refuted the claim that it is owned by Omo-Agege, saying the agitators were ignorant of the various operational platforms of the surveillance when it alleged that Zane Energy has disparity in the remuneration of ex-agitators.