Deputy speaker of the Delta state house of Assembly, Mr. Friday Ossai Osanebi is presently in a financial scam running into N779 million which he allegedly swindled oil bearing communities of Ndokwa East local government area of the state.
In this exclusive interview with the crew of HardReporters, on behalf of the communities, the chairman, Ndokwa East Cluster Communities (OB 3 Project), who also doubles as the chairman, LandLords of the Right-Of-Way Communities to the OB3 pipelines, Chief Josiah Agbanachi, accused the Delta State House of Assembly Deputy Speaker, Mr. Friday Osanebi of defrauding the people of N779 million and plugged into impoverishment, using his company, Augoe and Sons Nig. Limited, in connivance with one Engr. Noel Ejidike of NESTOIL Limited on the OB3 pipeline project in Ndokwa East to perpetrate monumental fraud running into several millions of naira to the detriment of the communities.
Excerpts:
QUESTION: Introduce Yourself To Us.
ANSWER: My name is Chief Josiah Agbanachi, I am the chairman of Ndokwa East Cluster Communities (OB 3 Project), I am also the chairman of LandLords of the Right-Of-Way Communities to the OB3 pipelines in Ndokwa East.
QUESTION: We Learnt A Bloody Crisis Is Looming In The Local Government Area Following Hijack Of Contracts And Fraud Committed Against The Oil Bearing Communities In The Local Government By Some Politicians. Can You Tell Us What Is Actually Happening.?
ANSWER: In 2014, NESTOIL Ltd was given a job by the NNPC to construct a pipeline from Rivers State through Delta to Edo state. The thing transverse through my land, eight communities were affected in Ndokwa East. We as landlords are supposed to get the contracts, the local content jobs but Hon. Friday Osanebi, who is not even a landlord in the right-of-way because he is from Beneku. The pipeline did not passed through his community, he collected all the jobs to the exclusion of all the landlords and that has been a problem because we are not happy. The first deal he did was the clearing, he does not even go there to work. Once he signs the contracts, NESTOIL does their work, gives him the money. In clearing, they gave him N15 million. That money is supposed to be for community, he collected that money. Now, he collected labour supply, from what the contract says, is supposed to employ 19 workers per community from the eight communities but he employed only eight. The other 11, he kept it to himself in connived with one Nowell, the then construction manager of NESTOIL. The monies for those workers is with them till tomorrow, we are asking them to bring that money because it belongs to community. He also collected bus (vehicles) supply and sublet to few of us, he gave me one. We are told that the bus is N900, 000 a month but he pays me N400, 000. I have a driver, I maintain the bus, I fuel it and at the end of the month, I get N60, 000 to N70, 000. My wife is a major caterer in Ndokwa Nation. He collected the contract of catering which has N2, 500 per plate and gave it to my wife at N600. The issue of saddle way production, they also gave it to him. All these jobs he is doing, we did not recommend him. That is our annoyance, we as landlords, we are supposed to recommend contractors but he uses his power and position as Deputy Speaker to hijack all our jobs and today we are suffering, we have nothing, he has taken all the jobs. Last two weeks, he called the community representatives together at Riverview hotel and gave them N2 million to share and all these community representatives, some of them were very happy. He called me and I told him I cannot come until we get all these anomalies corrected, I will not attend your meetings. He is supposed to supply eight speed boats, he supplied only two, the monies for the remaining six, we are asking him to bring the monies. Himself and Nowell of NESTOIL, two of them are with the money, we need the money. The buses not supplied, they supplied only two buses out of eight. The other six not supplied, we are also asking them to bring the money to the communities. As a legislator, he is not supposed to come and do contracts here. He comes here directly to do contracts. When they dropped the eight FTO workers, they employed per community, we protested. We wrote a letter to NESTOIL protesting that why should they drop our workers when the jobs have not been completed? As I am talking to you now, they have not even gone half way in Ndokwa East but they have dropped the FTO workers. They said they have informed Osanebi. They wrote a letter to us that they have informed Osanebi, who is the labour contractor, the letter is with me as I am talking to you now and so they will not listen to us but I said Friday Osanebi, is not a member of the Host Communities, we are the members of the Host Communities, you are supposed to inform us and we discuss with our children. They said they have done that and there is no going back, as I am talking with you now, the children are still protesting. Yesterday, they went to see the army, DSS and police that they want to block the roads, we have being preventing them. We have written petitions to NNPC even to the governor. After all these ones he has collected even the wielding contract, he handled it, he doesn’t go to the site to do anything, he will just sign and they give him what they call mark-up. If it is N20, N80 million for this contract, he will just sign and then they will give him the money, he sits down in his house, NESTOIL has the personnel, equipment and they do all their jobs, you don’t need to go there. So, these are supposed to be the monies for the communities which he has taken without even respecting us. Last year he started foreseeing surveillance and clearing of the pipelines. He came to the cluster that we should endorse him for that job. We asked are you the only person in Ndokwa East? About eight or nine jobs now, the major jobs in NESTOIL, you have taken all of them without us even recommending you. You are also fighting to come and take the surveillance and clearing which is a life job that is supposed to be for HOST communities. Some of us are retired, why don’t you leave us to manage these work. He said he is going to get it whether we like it or not. That the one from Irri to Ndokwa East, he is in charge, the one from Abalagada, he is in charge, the power line that moved from Agip to Aboh, he is in charge and that whether we like it or not, he is going to get it. The Pontu in Kwale, is the one managing it and so many other jobs, that he is going to get it and that if we don’t endorse him, he will still get it. What he did now, is to set up a parallel cluster to fight us. He will go to your community and pick three persons. He instructed NESTOIL to send letters to communities to recommend new representatives. So, that is the crises we are facing now. The communities are all divided. Like my own community, he brought one Don Frank to fight me. This Don Frank, I don’t even own the land with him. This is exactly what he is doing, if you fail to endorse him for the surveillance job and clearing, he will begin to fight you in your community. He went to Abuetor, promised one Pastor Ugo, that he is going to give him N40 million that Abuetor people should endorse him for the surveillance and clearing of the pipelines when commissioned and they are working towards that. Most of us who knows the implication because this thing involves scholarship. We have gone to NNPC, they told us that there are numbers of scholarships every year; skills acquisition, sustainable development will be coming to the communities every year. How do you give all these things to a contractor? He is telling us that he must be the contractor to do the job. I called my eldest brother, the man called him from Lagos. Why are you doing this? All the pipelines from Beneku you are the one handling the contract. Why don’t you leave this one that transverse our land for us?. He now asked my eldest brother, where do you stay? My eldest brother said he stays in Lagos. That land you stays in Lagos, are you the owner? That is the question he asked my eldest brother. So, I am going to fight your brother, which is myself that he is going to fight me. Why should a boy that I called my son begin to fight me in this manner? All the major jobs you took them, we didn’t fight you even though we are not happy. As I am talking to you now, he still want to take the one NNPC told us will last for about 100 years and you want to take it? I told him no, if any other person is bribed, you cannot bribe me. So, he is moving from community to community giving them money. And they went to say they have no problem with NESTOIL but I told them that I have problem with NESTOIL and Rt. Hon. Friday Osanebi because all these things I enumerated, I need them. The allowances for the community representatives in Ndokwa East is with him till today, he didn’t give us. Ndokwa West got their own N100, 000 every month. I have being the chairman from 2014 August till today, we went to Osanebi, he promised he will give us, till today, he has not paid us our money. I told them I need my money, if he has given you people okay but my own he has not given me. So, the fight must continue. My allowances, N100, 000 every month because you don’t have to coordinate a project without one naira. So, that morning we went to NESTOIL to demand for our money when we learnt that Ndokwa West people are getting their own. They told us that Osanebi should be the one to pay us the money. We went to him, he continue to tease us here and there till today, he has not given us the money. So, we are demanding for all these things.
QUESTION: We Understand He Owns A Company He Uses. Is It Also True That The Same Way He Also Collects From DESOPADEC?
ANSWER: Well, I don’t know of DESOPADEC but he uses one Augoe and Sons to collect all these contracts. It is his own company, he has collected all the jobs and I know that in DESOPADEC, the same thing is happening.
QUESTION: What Steps Have You People Taken So Far To Reach The State Government? Have You Been Able To Reach The Governor In Person? Is The Governor In Support Of What He Is Doing?
ANSWER: The governor is not yet aware of what is happening but the local government chairman is aware. The local government chairman has invited us: NESTOIL and NNPC that day they asked NESTOIL, why are you supporting Osanebi to form a parallel cluster to fight the genuine cluster? You Charles Derhi, the HOD, Community Development, who do you know as the cluster chairman? He said it is me, then secretary, he said Esi Okwedere. Why are you now setting a parallel cluster to fight them? The local government chairman is not happy with them at all. Now, we also told the local government chairman of what happened in respect of jobs and the disengagement of our workers. The woman said it is very bad, she has even promised that she is taking the matter to government about two times now through radio Delta. The woman is not happy, nobody is happy in Ndokwa East. Even the landlords in Aboh, have now risen up. Today we are going to meet, all the genuine landlords, nobody is happy because he is now fighting to take the surveillance and the clearing of the pipelines which we don’t want because he is not the only person in Ndokwa East. He is not even from the right-of-way communities.
QUESTION: If You Want To Estimate Now, How Much Would You Estimate As The Money Accrued The Landlords Till Date That You People Have Not Seen?
ANSWER: Yes! We calculated it and it is about N779 million. That is the monies we are expecting himself and NESTOIL to give to the communities because he is working with NESTOIL. If you call NESTOIL, they will say Augoe and Sons, the company owned by Osanebi. We calculated the boats not supplied, the 11 FTO workers not employed multiplied by N96, 000 they pay them for the number of 33 months. Then the food they gave to my wife, my wife is supposed to be a landlord because I am a landlord. To collect food of N2, 500 per a plate and you gave it to my wife at N600 is a very big injustice. So, we are asking for at least N1, 500 for the food. We calculated that one and added it to these monies that we are demanding the he should refund. He should cough them out because that is not the way people should eat money. All this money covered from August 2014 till last month March 2017. NNPC came and paid the money to every community, there was no problem. That was the first money we received. Now NESTOIL came in with Osanebi, we are not seeing anything. We have even written, he written petitions, somebody has sent it to EFCC. We are ready to send it to EFCC and ICPC for investigation. We are also arranging to see the governor to make the governor know. We have signed a letter down already which we are going to send to the governor. The first one we wrote, we sent it to the governor, I don’t know whether he got the letter.
