The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has called on the Federal Road Safety Corps and other relevant agencies to rise up to their mandate of keeping the nation’s roads safe by keeping smoky vehicles that exceed the approved emissions limit off the road.
The corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, made the call Tuesday when the colleagues of an NNPC staff who died in a road crash visited him to register their pain.
Stating the reason for the call, the NNPC spokesman said the loss of Mr. Dewari Aye, a staff of the Career Development and Appraisal Unit of the Group Human Resources Division, in a road crash along the Kubwa-Abuja Expressway on Monday evening was caused by a truck that was emitting thick smoke that impeded vision of road users.
“Apart from the environmental hazard caused by these trucks that belch thick smoke from their exhaust, the smoke impedes the vision of other road users as was the case with our colleague who was reported to have run into the truck and died”, he explained.
He said the untimely death of Mr. Aye and others who had died in similar circumstances would have been averted if the FRSC and the Directorate of Motor Vehicle Administration were alive to their duties by impounding smoky vehicles that constitute a safety hazard on the roads.
He conveyed the condolences of the Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari, to the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased staff, describing him as a very hardworking and dedicated staff who will be missed.
Meanwhile, NNPC has clarified the redeployment of 12 management staff of its flagship upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), saying it was aimed at repositioning the company to meet it production and reserve targets.
Addressing newsmen at the NNPC Towers on Tuesday, the NNPC Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, Mr. Rowland Ewubare, said the reorganization became imperative following the urgent need of the current management to grow the NPDC into a big time Exploration and Production player in the country.
Ewubare stated that for the NPDC to measure up to its peers, it needed a team of professionals that were fit-for-purpose and could deliver on project timelines and budgets.
He added that the shake-up in the NPDC was a routine exercise that was still ongoing, stressing that other staff that were not suitable for the posts they were currently occupying would be redeployed for national interest.
The NNPC Upstream boss said with the presidential mandate, it was appropriate to have a team of professionals who understood the urgency of the mission, dismissing any insinuation that trailed the exercise.
“The redeployment that just took place in NPDC is a signal to all members of staff that it is no longer business as usual. We are determined, as a management, to meet the four cardinal points of Transparency, Accountability with Performance Excellence (TAPE). Therefore, the redeployment has nothing to do with ethnicity, religion, or any sectional interest. The current NNPC management reflects all the six geo-political zones,” Ewubare enthused.
The COO maintained that NPDC as the E & P arm of the Corporation was strategic to the achievement of the target to grow the nation’s reserves and production to 40billion and 3million barrels per day by 2023, adding that with the President’s clear mandate the management was prepared to rejig personnel to meet the target.
He explained further that upon assumption of office, an evaluation of personnel was carried out which indicated incompetence and compromise on the part of some staff which necessitated the shake-up, adding that they also failed to provide efficient leadership for some of the assets needed to reposition the company.
“I must put on record that the changes would continue until we get the right optimal managerial talents for the management of those critical assets,” Ewubare declared
