From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
The Ogoni Civil Society Stakeholders Forum(OCISOF), has expressed concerns about a whopping N39 million allegedly stolen by a naval rating attached to the Hydrocarbon Pollution Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), from his commander in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Chairman of OCISOF, Lekia Christian, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt, yesterday, said after a critical evaluation of the allegation which was trending on social media, said the motive behind the report was intended to threaten the security architecture in HYPREP.
Christian reasoned that, with the high security machinery in the Federal Government agency, it was unimaginable how a naval rating could move N39 million cash from HYPREP undetected.
He expressed: “We want to make it categorically clear, that OCISOF does not, and will never support corruption under any guise. We have looked at the said report, and would have ignored it; but, considering the grave implication of our silence and its attendant consequences, decided to do a critical evaluation of the situation and, hence, our position.
“From the report, we saw no proof of the said N39 million being moved electronically. We equally wondered how possible it was, for the naval rating to have successfully stolen such an amount within an operational intelligence community, where surveillance, in personnel and cameras, should have been in place, without being caught?
“We aĺso believe that security funding within HYPREP should be detailed and classified, and that corruption cannot easily creep into the process without been detected.
“Therefore, for anyone to have claimed that such an amount, believed to be a proceed of corruption, was stolen in cash, without any concrete proof, evidence or fact, undermines the integrity of the source of that allegation.
“Remember, that we are talking about an estate of intelligence with capacity to investigate, caution and discipline its personnel. A reason we resolved to align ourselves with the position of the spokesperson of the Nigerian Navy, when he was reported to have said, the naval rating deserted his unit and service, being absent without leave for a prolonged period, but did not steal or abscond with any money.
“The report also revealed that the naval rating left on account of his wife’s ill-health. A careful analysis of that report by our thinking, suggests a likely clinical attempt to create a pseudo-climate of tension and confusion, within the security architecture of HYPREP, for reasons and motives, best known to those who may have contemplated it.”
Christian cautioned that attack on the security architecture of HYPREP was capable of influencing and impacting negatively on the Ogoni clean up exercise.
He said: “HYPREP is of strategic significance and relevance to the healing process, not only in Ogoniland, but, also within the larger Niger Delta, who over the years, suffered and are still suffering severe impacts of pollution and environmental degradation, occasioned by activities of oil multinationals in the region.
“We have resolved to resist and avast, whatever that will constitute a threat to the current security architecture in HYPREP.
“The present security team in HYPREP unlike what was obtainable in the past, has been very civil and professional, showing great respect/understanding, in dealing with citizens’ rights, particularly in the face of peaceful protest by different groups with one demand or the other, to the project office in Port Harcourt.
“We, therefore, wish to advice members of the noble journalism profession to be very thorough, unbias and always cross-checking their facts before going to press.
“To members of the public, we urge them to disregard the said publication, as those behind it are faceless, and their motives, unclear.”