By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

Federal Government’s efforts to end the ugly incidence of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta paid off recently when, in collaboration with Nigerian security operatives, Tantila Security Services which bagged a surveillance contract on oil pipeline installations in the Niger Delta apprehended and destroyed a barge known as MT Brighton 1 which reports say, is stealing Nigeria’s crude oil and selling illegally refined diesel to foreign ships.

Information monitored on Arise News says MT Brighton 1, an 820- metric ton barge, was apprehended in one of the creeks running into

the Ramos River in Agge community, a border village between Delta and Bayelsa State. It was destroyed through explosion.

According to Arise Energy Correspondent, the illegal operations of the barge known as Brighton 1 has come to an end.

“The 820 metric ton barge has operated for years, stealing and selling stolen crude oil and illegally refined diesel”.

The report said it was arrested alongside a large wooden canoe conveying illegally refined diesel in one of the creeks running into the Ramos River.

Four suspects onboard the vessel were apprehended. These included Augustine Omote, a marine engineer, and Obiakpor Moses who supplies food and materials to them. Augustine who claimed that it was his first trip said that he had no idea that Christopher (his employer, now at large) wanted him to transport illegally- gotten product.

He claimed ignorant of the contents of the barge.

“Augustine claimed that during loading,” the report said, “some community boys approached him for settlement”.  But he told them to allow him contact his boss to discuss with them and sort them out as he was not the owner of the job.

Maritime Intel and security expert, a consultant for Tantita Security Services who, in collaboration with government and security agencies arrested the barge said the suspects are usually given a false sense of security by their sponsors to perpetrate the crime.

In a similar development, the illegal operations of Blessed Corporate Oil & Gas Services Petrol Station in Opete community on Warri Local Government Area has also been uncovered. The outfit is also said to be involved in the sale of stolen petroleum products.

By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

Last Thursday’s reported arrest of a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) by Tantita Security Services Ltd, perhaps, marks a good starting point in the fight against pipeline vandalism and oil theft in the Niger Delta region.

It is also a huge booster to Nigeria’s quest to plug all leakages, conserve her daily crude production and return to her previous status of an oil-producing and exporting country that meets her quota as expected.

Following allegations of high profile theft and a noticeable drop in crude oil production, a development which has reduced Nigeria’s ability to meet her OPEC-authorized quota of crude oil in the international market, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) recently awarded a contract to Tantita Security Services Limited, an indigenous outfit, to mount surveillance on the critical facilities in the  region.

The contract award has attracted controversy following allegations that it was sectional and not all-inclusive.

Tantita Security Services Ltd intercepted MT Deinmo, a crude oil tanker, with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) number 7210526, loaded with an unspecified quantity of crude oil at the Escravos River in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.

The security outfit is an organization owned by High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, the Ibe-Ebidouwei of Ijaw Nation and leader of the defunct Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND)

In addition to the ship, Tantita also apprehended eight crew members of MT Deinmo.

According to Gbaramatu Voice Newspaper , one of the security personnel who was part of the operation told of how they got a tip-off that a ship was loading at the Escravos axis.

The security personnel went to the place  and got the ship arrested after verifying that it was involved in an illicit deal. The Tantita security expert further added that he was offered a bribe of N25m to let the ship go but he turned it down.

On the capacity of the ship, he explained that the ship is 1,500 metric tons and had on-board eight all-Nigerian crew members.

He disclosed that the captain of the vessel confessed that they came in from Lagos.  But for the arrest, the ship was billed to sail back to Lagos.

The intercepted ship, reports say, has been handed over to the Nigerian Navy.

It is recalled that the team Tantita Security Services led by its Managing Director, Engr. Kestin Pondi, on Friday, took security operatives and oil industry leaders, including the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, Group Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, among others, to site of the discovered illegal oil pipeline deftly plugged into the Trans-Escravos pipeline.

By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

Last Thursday’s reported arrest of a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) by Tantita Security Services Ltd, perhaps, marks a good starting point in the fight against pipeline vandalism and oil theft in the Niger Delta region.

It is also a huge booster to Nigeria’s quest to plug all leakages, conserve her daily crude production and return to her previous status of an oil-producing and exporting country that meets her quota as expected.

Following allegations of high profile theft and a noticeable drop in crude oil production, a development which has reduced Nigeria’s ability to meet her OPEC-authorized quota of crude oil in the international market, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) recently awarded a contract to Tantita Security Services Limited, an indigenous outfit, to mount surveillance on the critical facilities in the  region.

The contract award has attracted controversy following allegations that it was sectional and not all-inclusive.

Tantita Security Services Ltd intercepted MT Deinmo, a crude oil tanker, with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) number 7210526, loaded with an unspecified quantity of crude oil at the Escravos River in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.

The security outfit is an organization owned by High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, the Ibe-Ebidouwei of Ijaw Nation and leader of the defunct Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND)

In addition to the ship, Tantita also apprehended eight crew members of MT Deinmo.

According to Gbaramatu Voice Newspaper , one of the security personnel who was part of the operation told of how they got a tip-off that a ship was loading at the Escravos axis.

The security personnel went to the place  and got the ship arrested after verifying that it was involved in an illicit deal. The Tantita security expert further added that he was offered a bribe of N25m to let the ship go but he turned it down.

On the capacity of the ship, he explained that the ship is 1,500 metric tons and had on-board eight all-Nigerian crew members.

He disclosed that the captain of the vessel confessed that they came in from Lagos.  But for the arrest, the ship was billed to sail back to Lagos.

The intercepted ship, reports say, has been handed over to the Nigerian Navy.

It is recalled that the team Tantita Security Services led by its Managing Director, Engr. Kestin Pondi, on Friday, took security operatives and oil industry leaders, including the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, Group Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, among others, to site of the discovered illegal oil pipeline deftly plugged into the Trans-Escravos pipeline.

By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

A Niger Delta group, the Kalabari National Assembly, says the recent award of a multi billion Naira pipeline security surveillance contract to Chief Government Ekpemopolo, alias Tompolo, cannot stand as it was done in bad faith.

The deal, the group says, excluded other genuine interest groups including the Kalabari people through whose domain the pipelines pass.

In a statement signed by

Engr. Dabotubo G. Agiobu and Comrade Tralapuye Gogo Abite, the group described the contract award as “unjust and another pathetic attempt made by the occupationist Nigerian state to foment conflict in the Niger Delta between Kalabari people and their Ijaw kith across other regions in the delta”.

The group was unequivocal that it opposes any attempt to award such a critical contract to a non-Kalabari contractor to secure pipelines and similar structures passing through their land.

“We want to assure the NNPC and their contractors that no oil pipeline within Kalabari land will be in the custodianship of an individual who is not a Kalabari son or daughter.

The Kalabari National Assembly, the statement stated, is preparing community youths, women and elders all across the affected Kalabari communities to resist and frustrate all attempts made by the NNPC’s chosen contractor to operate in Kalabari Kingdom.

The release said the Kalabari people have done it before not long ago and

are prepared to do it again.

“The advocates of the prestigious Kalabari National Assembly based at home and in the diaspora, being fully knowledgeable of the four billion naira per month oil pipeline surveillance contract awarded to five different companies, has resolved to staunchly object to and protest the exclusion, discrimination and side-lining of Kalabari indigenes from surveillance contracts in Kalabari land and the imposition of Non-Kalabari indigenes to infiltrate Kalabari territorial waterways and control the economic resources of Kalabari people.

“The Kalabari National Assembly views this unjust contract as another pathetic attempt made by the occupationist Nigerian state to foment conflict in the Niger Delta between Kalabari people and their Ijaw kith across other regions in the delta. We want to assure the NNPC and their contractors that no oil pipeline within Kalabari land will be in the custodianship of an individual who is not a Kalabari son or daughter as we are preparing our community youths, women and elders all across the affected Kalabari communities to resist and frustrate all attempts made by the NNPC’s chosen contractor to operate in Kalabari Kingdom. The Kalabari people have done it before not long ago, and we are prepared to do it again.

“Awarding surveillance contracts for oil pipelines within Kalabari Kingdom to Government Ekpemupolo’s (Tompolo) Global West company when there are already better qualified crucial stakeholders from Kalabari who had bid for the same contract as Tompolo is the highest level of disrespect, betrayal and deprivation towards Kalabari people on the part of the Nigerian minister of state petroleum, Mr Timipre Sylva who is an Ethnic-Ijaw, collaborating with the oppressive Nigerian state to dispossess our people of our wealth.”

The Kalabari National Assembly called on the NNPC and its contractor, Government Ekpemupolo of Global West Company to cede the protection of oil pipelines in Kalabari Kingdom to Kalabari indigenes only so as to avert unnecessary conflict and confusion in the Niger Delta resulting from the discriminatory, unfair and biased contract.