Urhobo Group Urges NASS Probe Panel on Pipeline Contract to Resist Beneficiaries’ Influence
The Odavwe R’Urhobo, a socio-political group dedicated to securing a fair share of the lucrative pipeline surveillance contract for the Urhobo people and putting an end to what it describes as the collection of mere crumbs from other ethnic nationalities, has issued a strong advisory to the National Assembly committee investigating the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and other relevant government agencies over the controversial contract award.
In a statement issued today being Tuesday, 10 March, 2026 at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja, today Tuesday signed by Chief Mathias Efe Olowu, Chairman/ Convener and Comrade Paul Efe Osumiri secretary, while reacting to the second postponement of the public hearing on the pipeline surveillance contract matter, the group passionately called on the lawmakers to execute their investigative mandate without any undue interference or influence from those currently benefiting from what it termed a one-sided contract awarded exclusively to members of a single family, insisting that such impartiality is crucial to addressing long-standing marginalization in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
Chief Mathias Efe, disclosed that Urhobo indigenes as young as 18 years old had been thoroughly mobilized from their various communities across the country ahead of the highly anticipated National Assembly event, emphasizing that the people are now determined to take their destiny into their own hands rather than leaving it in the control of others.
He declared unequivocally that the destinies of the Urhobo people do not lie in the hands of any external forces but squarely in the palms of individual Urhobo sons and daughters who are fully prepared to wage this righteous battle against the persistent marginalization of the Urhobo ethnic nationality right in their own fatherland, a resource-rich region that has contributed immensely to Nigeria’s oil wealth yet continues to be shortchanged in contract allocations.
Chief Olowu further articulated the group’s firm position with a clarion call: “Guard your pipeline, and let me guard my own,” underscoring a demand for equitable zoning and rotation of the surveillance contracts to reflect federal character principles and prevent the monopolization by any single group or family.
Lamenting the repeated disruptions to the scheduled proceedings, Chief Olowu criticized the National Assembly for failing to adequately communicate postponements to the public, noting that many Urhobo stakeholders had undertaken arduous journeys from their homes in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country to Abuja specifically for the event, only to arrive and be informed that it had been deferred yet again without prior notice, thereby wasting precious time, resources, and goodwill.
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He expressed deep suspicion over the circumstances surrounding the second postponement, stating categorically that the group refuses to believe that the beneficiaries of this oppressive and lopsided contract are not pulling strings behind the scenes to frustrate the probe, as they have been boastfully claiming to possess the financial muscle to “settle” every government official or lawmaker attempting to halt or review their illicit gains.
The Odavwe R’Urhobo leader urged the National Assembly to prioritize transparency in its scheduling and to summon the courage to probe the contract to its logical conclusion, warning that continued delays would only fuel perceptions of complicity and deepen the ethnic tensions already simmering over the unequal distribution of pipeline protection contracts in Nigeria’s petroleum industry.
