Tinubu urged to ignore blackmail campaign as NFI dismisses staged protests against NNPCL CEO Bayo Ojulari, warning of sabotage to reforms

Tinubu urged to ignore blackmail campaign targeting the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Group CEO, Bayo Ojulari, as civil society leaders describe recent protests against him as stage-managed and politically motivated.

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At a press briefing in Abuja, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Forum for Integrity (NFI), Nelson Idoko, said a protest by a group claiming to be Niger Delta youths was neither genuine nor credible.

He described the demonstration as “laughable and stage-managed,” insisting that the protesters were hired from Abuja suburbs and could not even reveal their identities on camera.

The demonstrators had demanded Ojulari’s resignation, citing alleged corruption and calling for someone from the Niger Delta to lead the NNPCL.

But Idoko argued that no region in a federal system has the authority to dictate presidential appointments.

“Is it not the same Niger Delta that now has the Minister of the FCT for the first time in history? These cheap agitations hold no water,” he said.

Idoko also linked the protest’s timing to recent progress by the NNPCL. Just a day earlier, the company had announced it was close to meeting 100 per cent of its OPEC quota for the first time in decades, a milestone celebrated nationwide.

“Clearly, the timing was meant to drown the loud ovation this achievement attracted,” he stressed.

The NFI further noted that the protests coincided with President Bola Tinubu’s investment drive in Brazil, suggesting an attempt to undermine his international efforts.

Calling the campaign a deliberate act of sabotage, the group urged President Tinubu to take decisive action against sponsors of what it described as “orchestrated antagonism.”

“We have the names of the sponsors of these protests and media attacks and will submit them to the relevant agencies for investigation and prosecution,” Idoko revealed.

He added that Tinubu must “fish out enemies within” the government who are benefiting from the system while secretly aiding opposition elements.

For the NFI, Ojulari’s leadership and Tinubu’s reforms deserve support, not blackmail.