CONFODEV Defends NNPCL GCEO, Dismisses Corruption Allegations as Handiwork of Saboteurs

The Coalition of Niger Delta People for Development (CONFODEV) has thrown its weight behind the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari, describing him as a reformist committed to fairness, equity and transparency in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

This came following protest by the Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders Forum (NDENYLF) which demanded that the GCEO should be replaced over alleged corruption and mismanagement.

The youths also demanded the appointment of an indigene of the Niger Delta region as the GCEO of the oil giant.

But CONFODEV, at a press conference held in Abuja, dismissed the allegations of corruption and marginalization leveled against Ojulari as baseless, politically sponsored and designed to frustrate ongoing reforms in the sector.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Thursday, August 28, 2025, CONFODEV’s Director General, and Convener, Niger Delta Development Agenda (NDDA) Comr. Iteveh Nurudeen Ekpokpobe, said Mr. Ojulari had in less than four months of assuming office, introduced bold measures that restored crude oil production to near-peak levels.

The coalition, which is an umbrella body of several Niger Delta groups including the Niger Delta Development Agenda (NDDA), Rivers State Ex-Agitators Network, Niger Delta Liberators Forum, Niger Delta Renaissance and Development Movement, and the Ndigbo Progressive Youths Coalition, said that Ojulari, within a short time has revitalised moribund infrastructure and extended empowerment projects to oil-producing communities across the Niger Delta.

He explained that Ojulari’s commitment to ending nepotism in the award of contracts had unsettled some vested interests who had benefitted from years of injustice and monopoly.

According to him, such individuals are now resorting to blackmail because their corrupt networks are being dismantled.

“The reality is that corruption is fighting back. For years, the Niger Delta was subjected to unfair practices in the oil sector, but today Mr. Ojulari is introducing equity and fairness. Unfortunately, those who profited from the old order see this as a threat to their survival, hence these attacks,” Ekpokpobe stated.

The coalition praised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for backing Ojulari’s reformist drive, stressing that his administration had shown genuine commitment to repositioning the oil industry and ensuring that Niger Delta communities feel the direct impact of national resources.

CONFODEV therefore condemned in strong terms the ongoing smear campaign against the NNPCL GCEO, passed a vote of confidence on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mr. Bashir Ojulari for their commitment to repositioning Nigeria’s oil sector, called on Niger Delta youths and stakeholders not to allow themselves to be used as pawns by corrupt interests seeking to derail the progress already underway, and urged the Presidency and Mr. Ojulari to remain focused on restructuring the pipeline surveillance contracts to guarantee fairness across ethnic lines.

The group insisted that those calling for the sack of Ojulari had exposed themselves as saboteurs who do not wish the region well. It maintained that if their aim was to draw attention to challenges in the Niger Delta, blackmail and smear campaigns could never be the right path.

Ekpokpobe concluded that CONFODEV will continue to mobilise support for reforms that guarantee justice and fairness in the oil sector, adding that the people of the region will not fold their arms while enemies of progress attempt to drag them back into an era of exploitation, monopoly and injustice.