Investigate Alleged Threats Against NNPCL GCEO, Itsekiri Group Urges IGP, DSS …Commends Reforms in Oil Industry

The Itsekiri Progressive Youth Movement (IPYM), a Delta State-based organization, has called on the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and other relevant security agencies to investigate the alleged threats to the life of the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari.

Ojulari, while hosting a delegation from the national body of the Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), led by its President, Comrade Festus Osifo, at the NNPC Towers in Abuja last week, alleged that his life was under threat. He explained that certain forces were uncomfortable with the sweeping reforms he has introduced to restore sanity in the oil and gas sector.

He maintained that the reforms, which directly challenge those benefiting from inefficiencies in the industry, particularly the dormant state of the nation’s four refineries, have unsettled vested interests.
“We are under attack. We will not succumb to short-term pressure, as it will not serve the best interest of Nigerians. You cannot drive change without a price, and the transformation is tough,” Ojulari stated.

In a statement issued over the weekend, IPYM described the recent protest in Abuja demanding Ojulari’s removal and his disclosure of threats to life as matters that security agencies must not take lightly.

The statement, jointly signed by Comrade Jerry Atiene (National Chairman) and Hon. Romeo Ogedegbe (General Secretary), urged security operatives to unmask those behind the threats.
“We were deeply troubled when the NNPCL boss, Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari, revealed that his life and those of his management team were being threatened. Patriotic Nigerians and critical stakeholders should be alarmed that his only ‘offence’ is introducing reforms in the oil and gas sector, in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s vision to revive the comatose refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna. Security agencies must act swiftly to expose those behind these threats and acts of blackmail,” the group stressed.

IPYM further described the “Ojulari-must-go” protest in Abuja as a classical case of corruption fighting back. It, however, urged Ojulari not to be deterred in his efforts to make the NNPCL profit-oriented and to ensure that the nation’s four public-owned refineries function optimally.

The group also appealed to Nigerians to give the Ojulari-led management of NNPCL more time to reposition the country’s refineries and place them on a path of productivity that will contribute significantly to national development.