Pay Me My Money – OPC Leader, Fredrick Fasehun Tells Buhari

Founder of the Odua Peoples Congress, OPC, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun yesterday requested the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to pay him and his organisation the money owed them for the protection of the nation's oil pipelines.Speaking at a quarterly interactive media roundtable in Lagos, the national chairman of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, explained that six companies were given the contract by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to guard pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.Noting that a total of 18,000 personnel were sentto the field out of which OPC contributed 4,000, Fasehun lamented that his organisation was not given a dime before the contract, adding that after Jonathan's exit, the contract was terminated with nothing given to the OPC.According to him, "We were given the contract onMarch 15, 2015 and we deployed youths into the jungle. They faced insects, snakes and other wild animals and some of them even died. The government did not pay us a kobo before or during the time of the contract which ended on June 15."We have asked our lawyers to study the terms ofthe contract. An official in the NNPC told me that we had been paid but I told him that we had not received a penny. We call the attention of the powers that be to look into this. The holy books say that a worker deserves his wage."Recounting that Lai Mohammed had alleged that Jonathan gave the OPC over N2bn as mobilisation money for the election under the guise of pipeline protection, Fasehun urged Mohammed, who is now the Minister of Information and Culture, to withdraw the statement and correct the wrong impression."Someone who is now a minister once told Nigerians that I collected N2.8bn. Lai Mohammed, who I call a liar, is now the government's mouthpiece and he must correct that impression," he stated.The OPC leader, while noting that Nigerians are yet to see the change the APC promised during the electioneering, said Buhari had spent over six months in office but had failed to impress Nigerians."Nigerians are angry today. They wanted a change and cheered when the APC came into power but the cheer has now become a jeer. Let the government know that this is not the change Nigerians voted for," he added.