By Stephen Ubanna
Those criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari over the N4 billion, monthly, Pipeline Surveillance contract, totaling about N48 billion, for a year, which is the duration of the contract awarded to Delta Security Services Nigeria Limited, allegedly floated by Ekpemedulo, popular, Tompolo, a High Chief, in the Garamatu Kingdom, Delta state may have to do a rethink .
This is because barely two months of the Tompolo, security outfit mobilization of the 17,000, Locals engaged by the Company to resume operation in the Niger Delta region of pipeline surveillance, as what they have been able to achieve, in less than two months should be a source of joy to Nigerians that at long last the government has gotten it right in addressing the challenges of the oil thieves in the Niger Delta region.
Indeed, what the Tompolo security Company was said to have achieved in six months of its operations in Delta and Bayelsa, described as the home of the oil thieves, speaks volume. Even the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, now baptized as the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NNPC, with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, which had been signed into Law, by the Nigerian President, in August 2021, Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC and other Multinational oil Companies, including the security agencies personnel, could not over the last seven years dictate the oil points that had been created by the oil thieves in the two Niger Delta states.
Note that oil bunkering is one businesses in the Niger Delta in which NNPC and the oil Companies had spent billions of naira over the years to stop the oil thieves nefarious activities which Mele Kolo Kyari, Group Managing Director, GMD, of the Nigerian oil octopus said had been thriving in the country for more than nine years.
Officials of NNPC, had said that Nigeria loses about 470,000, b/d, of Crude oil worth about N700 million to the oil thieves, daily, but Kyari, the GMD, had come out to say that, the quantities of Crude lost to the oil thieves in the Niger Delta region was 600,000b/d, noting that the activities of Criminal elements have left ‘’Brass, Bonny and Forcados, terminals, practically doing zero production’’.
Many believe that Tompolo, who have has vowed to crush any individual or group that dare to sabotage government effort in the pipeline surveillance project and his men could achieve that much in less than two months, when the work is just starting in the Creeks clearly knows the nooks and crannies of the region.
It was not surprising why he could effectively mobilise his men engaged in the pipeline surveillance in the nine Niger Delta states of Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Ondo, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Abia and Imo, particular, Delta, Bayelsa and Imo states.
The Gbaramatu, High Chief, had confirmed to those cares to listen that within six weeks of its operations in Delta, his home state, they excavated sixteen traffics on the Ttrans Exca bus pipeline in one location in the Creeks. There are indications that more of such oil points were also excavated at Ogedigbe and Medawo Communities in the state.
Tompolo may have shocked Nigerians when he revealed that Delta Security Services Ngeria Limited, which won the multi-million naira pipelines security contract have so far discovered 58 illegal oil points in Delta and the neighbouring Bayelsa state.
The Value News learnt that the journey to some of the locations used by the oil thieves sometimes takes Company security operatives, who wore black tea shirts and berets to match and other security operatives, into the night, with their branded boat speeding and bumbling into the unending sea waves.
According to informed sources, these vandals, were real professionals because of the way they operate ‘’by making careful but illegal insertions on to Crude lines traversing the soils of the Mangrove swamps, beneath the sea and connecting their own pipes through the pipelines to the reservoir tanks constructed inside the bushes to cook Premium Motor Spirits, popular, petrol, diesel, kerosene, petrol, which are pushed into the Nigerian and the west coast markets. Addressing the press in Oporaza Community, on Sunday, September 9, 2022, the Gbaramatu High Chief, had opened up on the discovery of a 4Km illegal Crude pipeline in the Forcados area of Delta state
In discovering the oil points in the Delta and Bayelsa Creeks, Tompolo, had said that officials of Delta Security Services Limited, had worked closely with the traditional rulers, the Nigerian Navy, Army, Department of State Services, DSS, and informants from the region who were said to have given the information on how to access the difficult terrains.
For now, only the Tompolo’s group which have started its operations in Delta and Bayelsa states, aremaking mpact while the group in Rivers and Imo, are yet to start. Tompolo, the Chairman of Delta Security Services Nigeria Limited, was said that they have discussed with the groups in the two Niger Delta states who have agreed to resume work soon to excavate the illegal oil points in their respective states.
The former Niger Delta militant had said that once this is done, the job is as good as having been done as they will then call on the security agencies ‘’to call their officers to order’’. The implication of the Delta security Services Nigeria Limited Chairman, bold statement was that the security operatives are part of the oil thieves in the Niger Delta.
On Friday September 6, 2022, Tompolo’s men had stormed Escravos, and arrested an illegal oil bunkering vessel, with stolen Crude oil aboard in Delta Cr Personnel In Warri River alongside its seven Crew members.
The Dutch vessel, of about 600 to650 cubic meters of illegally lifted crude oil in five compartments was said to be on board the vessel with registration number L85 B9.50 as at the time it was arrested. The vessel was said to have been sold to a Nigerian and had been variously used for moving Crude oil illegally for years to Tema in Ghana for export to Europe
In his Confession,Temple Manasseh, the Captain of the vessel had re-confirmed that it was arrested by Tompolo’s men in Escravos with Crude oil’’, stressing that the vessel was hijacked by gunmen who had diverted it to the Creeks and carefully loaded Crude oil into it.
.‘’I was arrested in Escravos by Tompolo’s boys but the alleged stolen Crude oil was not stolen by me’’, he had said. He further stated that ‘’when Tompolo men arrived the scene, the gunmen ran away and abandoned their loading operation’’ which was said to have lasted about two and half hours’’.
Captain Waredi Enisuoh, the Marin Consultant For Tantiita security services, had aid that Naval personnel stormed the scene as a result of intelligence gathering , stressing that the security men had monitor the space via satellite’’.
I was arrested in Escravos by Tompolo’s boys but the alleged stolen Crude oil was not stolen by me’’, he had said. He further stated that ‘’when Tompolo’s men arrived the scene, the gunmen ran away and abandoned their loading operation’’ which was said to have lasted about two and half hours.
Captain Waredi Enisuoh, the Marin Consultant For Tantiita security services, had aid that Naval personnel stormed the scene as a result of intelligence gathering , stressing that the security men had ‘’monitored
Tompolo had said that it takes a man of courage ‘’to reveal all the secrets that had been concealed over the years in oil bunkering in the Niger Delta region. He had showcased some of the oil points and how the pipes were laid to the sea by the thieves. There were also identified offshore oil platforms that were said to be in use by the oil thieves to export Crude oil around the Forcados area of the state.
The Tabita Consultant disclosed that they had intelligence that ‘’five vessels were coming around the Escravos to lift the illegal Crude oil but stated that only one arrived , arrested by Tompolo’s men and destroyed by the Nigeria Naval personnel in Warri River’’.
