●Desperate Bid To Extort Oil Firms Assume Dirty Dimension
●Why Govt, Regulatory Agencies Must Intervene Soon
When a rapscallion appropriates the pose of a journalism crusader, he renounces every ethic and embraces the dark, the flesh, and the devil. Thus the shenanigans of Ezekiel Kagbala. Once he touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.
Neconde Energy Limited, an indigenous oil firm partnering with Nestoil in the Niger Delta region are the latest casualties of Kagbala’s cutthroat, cash-and-carry journalism. Kagbala recently lent himself as a hatchet man for certain faceless individuals and ruthless fortune hunters, with intent to sabotage the Neconde and Nestoil operations in the Niger Delta.
In a severely skewed write-up titled, “Crude Oil Fraud: How Nestoil, Neconde Impoverished Host Communities in Delta (Part 1),” Ezekiel Kagbala made a series of unfounded allegations in FocalPoint Reports, an online news medium.
In the mischievous publication, which was laden with lies, Kagbala alleged that Nestoil colluded with Neconde, an indigenous oil firm, to impoverish host communities to its operations at the OML42 field in the Niger Delta region.
The Capital findings, however, revealed that Kagbala was recruited by faceless elements within the region to frustrate Neconde and Nestoil’s efforts, following their failure to extort the partners and embezzle monies meant for developing their host communities.
This corrupt cabal that has recruited Kagbala is particularly peeved by the organisations’ insistence that monies set aside for corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects must be deployed and used solely for that purpose. It must never enter private pockets, stated Neconde Energy, in a recently released statement and rejoinder to Kagbala’s hatchet work on the issue.
The statement reads, “While we understand that any reasonably informed Nigerian or Organization need not dig too deep to ascertain the true situation in OML42; the growing audacity of Ezekiel Kagbala (FocalPoint Reports) and
the clandestine sponsors of his publications, in what appears to be an increasing display of willful intent to misinform the public and malicious intent to malign business and persons; necessitates those records are set straight.”
To set the record straight, Neconde Energy disclosed that the NNPC Exploration & Production Limited (NEPL) is the Operator of OML42 Asset. At the same time, Neconde Energy Limited is a JV Partner of OML42 having invested significant amounts with the support of astute professionals, business and financial institutions with an exemplary record.
The Capital findings revealed that Neconde has, in no way, violated operational guidelines in the region as established by the Nigerian Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which makes provisions for host communities which encourage social and economic development and is aimed at promoting cooperation between the host communities and petroleum asset Operators (Settlor).
“The clandestine corrupt sponsors of the publications by Ezekiel Kagbala and FocalPointsReports are running a campaign to misinform the public and distract from their greed-driven contract racketeering in collusion with certain elements within their sphere of control. A highly reprehensible conduct which any well-meaning Nigerian, business or investor would find appalling and unacceptable,” according to the statement signed by Neconde Energy.
Contrary to claims by Kagbala and cohorts, the OML42 community leadership, opinion leaders and responsible members of the community
are not conspiring with Kagbala and FocalPoint Reports and have disassociated themselves from the false claims made in their publications, condemning them outrightly.
Prior to the PIA, Neconde Energy Limited had funded the GMOU implementation and sustained the peace bonus that supported payment of allowances to teachers in OML 42 communities, electrification projects, riverine school boats for primary schools, training community workers
who today have been converted to E&P Field Professional in OML 42, and so on.
Yet Kagbala and FocalPoint Reports ignore these achievements and publish a series of articles to demean the progress fostered and sustained in the region courtesy of Neconde Energy and Nestoil.
“Having noted the foregoing it is necessary to assure the public that these attempts to blackmail private investors and individuals will not in any way change their resolve to do only the right thing. We urge the public and readers to disregard the false information being peddled by these bastions of perfidy. We have been briefed and we shall be taking the appropriate legal action in accordance with the rule of law,” according to the statement signed by Neconde Energy.
Notwithstanding, Kagbala and cohorts will continue with their smear campaign orchestrated against Neconde Energy and Nestoil. The latest was sponsored to distract and intimidate the energy firms in their push for zero tolerance for corruption in the management and operation of the OML
42 oil asset, a project bolstered by the solid support of financial institutions bankers, who have invested significant multiple million dollars over 12 years. For the maligned oil firms, it’s a struggle to reap the benefits of this investment due to the endemic and brazen corruption of individuals using hack writers, like Kagbala, who do not understand what it means to invest this amount of money in the acquisition of an oil asset in an unstable economy.
The lamentation in the petroleum industry is that the sector is under siege by desperate gang-lords posing as oil Turks. The latter, like man-made deities, maintain a savage hold on the country’s upstream and downstream sectors, often demanding and profiting from outrageous waivers, and undermining of policies as their vanities demand.
Ultimately, they have turned the country’s oil sector into their personal possession, relegating it to a crude dynastic arrangement. These men are institutions on their own. Besides their intimidating wealth and flourishing business concerns, they jointly constitute a formidable force in successive political climes. Having attained great wealth and eminence by crook and subterfuge, they have become so entrenched in the socioeconomic and politicisation of the oil sector that they have become demigods on their own, with the capacity to exert considerable influence or pressure on the country’s oil economy often with devastating results.
But while Nigerians continually grapple with the bitter reality of their presence as the nemesis of the country’s energy sector, the likes of Kagbala commit to the desperate whitewash of the inordinate ventures and influence on the country’s oil economy.
A journalist like Kagbala should know better and commit to the sanitation of the oil industry in order to reduce the clout and financial might of the gangsters pretending to be tycoons.
There is no gainsaying Kagbala has pitched his tent with criminal elements with the backing of FocalPoint Reports.
While the Nigerian situation demands the urgent intervention of the government and oil regulatory bodies, it’s about time Kagbala retraced his steps before he is completely lost to the designs of the criminal elements seeking to neuter the growth of good corporate citizens and crucial stakeholders in the country’s oil sector, particularly in the operations in the Niger Delta region.
