There is fresh plot by oil crooks to blackmail, smear Kyari – CSOs

A coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) on Sunday said it has uncovered fresh plot by embittered oil thieves to blackmail, smear and tarnish the image of the group chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL),  Mele Kyari.

The CSOs, consisting of 42 different organizations, said the move by the oil thieves whose businesses have been truncated by the recent stoppage of payment for fuel subsidy by the Federal Government and the total war declared by the Kyari-led NNPCL against oil theft and pipeline vandals, is to disinform and set Nigerians against the national oil company and its top officials under false pretext of fighting for public interest over the temporary pain being experienced as a result of the subsidy removal.

A statement signed by Abubakar Ibrahim, convener; Bashir Faisal, Comrade Rafiu Shaibu, co-conveners, of the 42 CSOs, noted that having failed in its several bids to malign him, it has now engaged some faceless, fictitious and unknown groups to gather in the streets and cause public disturbance in the name of protest calling for the removal of NNPCL GCEO.

While calling on security agencies to beam their searchlights on these groups and their sponsors, their CSOs urged Nigerians to ignore the noisemakers who are playing the cards of their corrupt, fraudulent oil crooks who have milked Nigeria dry for their personal gains.

Part of the statement reads: “Nigerians will recall that first, these corrupt oil marketers and crooks sponsored a fake news on social media in June that the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had sacked the hardworking GCEO of the NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari.

This narratives however “didn’t fly as officials at the Presidency later debunked it as fake news.

“Defeated in their desperate bid to nail Kyari this set of characters finally came out in human form

They soon issued a statement signed by a controversial and failed politician who is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) hobnobbing with PDP politicians, calling on the Tinubu administration to arrest Kyari and heads of other agencies.