ACN faults $40m contracts for Asari, others

The Action Congress of Nigeria has described as illegal, unconstitutional and indefensible, the $40m  being paid annually to some ex-militants to guard the country’s oil pipelines.
In a statement on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said  “the reckless manner political power is exercised and monopolised by a few individuals is partly overheating the polity.
The statement added, “Regretably some actions and inaction of this admnistration have lent credence to the widely held belief that this administration is waging and exerting power only for the benefits of a section of the country.”

The party recalled that on January 22, 2012, it issued a statement in which it queried the rationale behind the memo that was presented to the Federal Executive Council seeking approval for a strategic concession partnership between NIMASA and Global West to enforce regulatory compliance and surveillance of the entire Nigerian Maritime domain.
In the same statement, the ACN expressed concerns, because the Federal Government  had withdrawn a bill before the National Assembly that would have performed the same functions being outsourced to a private firm.
“We state again emphatically that it is totally unacceptable and unconscionable – even unprecedented especially in a fragile federation like ours – for any government to hand over the security of its entire maritime domain to a private firm, a group of ex – militants for that matter, given the far reaching implications of such a decision for trade, security, ports and shipping in the country.
“What is the agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan in allowing this to happen? Why would a government so willingly abdicate its responsibility of ensuring the security of its maritime domain? What were the ministers thinking when they approved this dangerous memo?
“The ACN has dismissed as self serving, irresponsible,  untenable and illogical attempts to defend this outrageous decision to hand over the security of not only our entire maritime domain but also the responsibility of protecting our pipelines to ex- militants. In the first instance, a decision as momentous as this, ought to have been a subject of rigorous national debate.”
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