By Austin Ogwuda
Renowned Niger Delta Rights and Environmental Activist, Comrade Ozobo Austin has written to President Bola Tinubu to demand the immediate withdrawal of NNS Beecroft Commander of Lekki Lagos, Commodore Kolawole Olumide Oguntuga from Service for deliberately inciting crisis by framing up High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo to pave way for illicit oil activities in the Nigeria waters.
This was contained in a press statement released, Monday and made available to The Town Hall Media.
He said the Oguntuga action of deliberately framing up Tompolo’s Tantita security operatives to cover up some illicit activities in the waterways is desperation taken too far, describing it as an abuse of office.
According to him, Oguntuga had ridiculed and dented the hard-earned reputation of the Nigerian Navy and should be immediately removed from service.
Hear him, “we are aware of the face-off between Navy and Tantita over the intercepted vessel Ladden with stolen crude which was being escorted by the Nigerian Navy sometime in July 2023.
“It is glaring that the Navy is on a voyage of vendetta against Tompolo’s Tantita security outfit because of what has transpired.
“Again, the Navy is doing this to dent Tompolo’s reputation to stop the federal government from renewing the pipeline surveillance contract to him as they see Tompolo’s Tantita security outfit as a problem to the illegal activities Navy and other security outfits are carrying out on the waterways.
“Mr President, Oguntuga should be investigated to unravel his motive of manipulating, fabricating, and framing up innocent Tompolo’s Tantita security operatives while on active duty of protecting the nation’s oil resources from sabotage.
“Mr. President, it is glaring that some of these Navy officials and other conventional security outfits are agents of oil thieves. They are angry, that Tompolo is stopping them from the illicit activities in which they making huge money which they use in building mansons, luxurious hotels and cars.
“Mr. President, desperate oil cabals are fighting and fabricating all manners of blackmails to deceive you not to renew the security contract for Tompolo, as to create room for more sabotage of the nation’s oil resources.
“Mr President you have witnessed the achievements of the sustained fight against oil theft by Tantita security operatives. These should be sustained if we experience upward progress in oil daily output in the country. I can tell you for free that all these mischievous blackmails are fought back by the cabals of the oil theft, using highly placed security officials as an instrument.
“Mr. President, the decision is up to you, whether Nigeria should move forward or retrogress. These are simple tricks and deceptions aiming at stopping the renewal of the security contract awarded to Tompolo.
“However, we demand that NNS Beecroft Commander, Oguntuga should be removed from service to avoid further provocation in Niger Delta”, stated Ozobo in the press statement.
In another development the Immediate Past Deputy Governor of Delta State, Deacon Kingsley Otuaro has sent a letter to the President, also calling for his intervention.
Titled ‘A PLEA FOR THE RENEWAL OF CONTRACT FOR TANTITA SECURITY SERVICES LTD TO REINFORCE OUR CONFIDENCE IN YOUR MANTRA OF RENEWED HOPE IN THE ECONOMY’ reads:
“Your Excellency Sir, the news media has been lately awash with calls on your office to consider the propriety or otherwise of the renewal of the contract for Tantita Security Services Limited, a company allegedly owned by Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, contracted to secure national oil and gas assets and fight the thieving of crude oil with the NNPCL and Nigerian Security Agencies in the Niger Delta.
I am constrained to write this open letter to your office as the immediate past Deputy Governor of Delta State with substantial knowledge of the menace of crude oil theft and vandalism of its infrastructure on one hand, and as a native of Okerenkoko and Obotobo Communities in Warri South West and Burutu Local Government Areas of Delta State that are amongst other communities, the host to the trans-Escravos pipeline and the 200km trans-Forcados pipeline, respectively.
The latter is the second largest pipeline in the Niger Delta Region that evacuates crude oil from the Western Delta to the Forcados oil export terminal with an export capacity of 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day. I am worried because Nigeria undoubtedly is a mono-economy that is majorly reliant on crude oil and gas receipts.
Our national and sub-national governments’ budgets, almost always have been tripodal on crude oil and gas sales, tax receipts that are inextricably linked to the oil and gas subsidiary investments, and external and internal borrowings.
Thus, any shock in the sector, whether man-made or natural cause, adversely impacts the economy. This is the more reason the Presidency must be circumspect, and cannot afford to make an error of judgment in the ongoing campaign of calumny and divisiveness against the partners in progress; Tantita Security Services Ltd, the NNPCL and the Nigerian Navy, in their patriotic fight against the syndicated criminal activities of crude oil theft and vandalism of its infrastructure.
After all, it is a notorious fact that the fight against the menace of oil theft, and the destruction of national oil and gas assets has already made tremendous progress. If so, why the ridiculous and untenable ‘hue and cry’ to change a winning team?
It is important that our budding confidence in your mantra of ‘Renewed Hope’ should be kept alive as the economically impoverished citizenry battles for survival amidst the hardship occasioned by the fuel subsidy removal.
The aftermath of the 2015 general election which brought in your predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari into office witnessed unprecedented and successive breaches of critical oil and gas facilities including the famous trans-Forcados delivery pipeline on the 27th May 2016, and that amongst other factors accounted for the country being plunged into recessionary times as there was a drastic drop in crude oil production and a dip in its price in the international market to an all-time low 24 dollars per barrel.
Responsively, the then Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa-led government of Delta State constituted the Delta State Advocacy Committee Against Oil Assets Destruction and I became Chairman of the committee. No sooner was the inauguration of the committee, we hit the creeks of the oil-producing communities by embarking on aggressive advocacy campaigns against oil assets destruction.
The Committee went to the oil-producing communities in the Benin River and its tributaries that opened up into some communities in Edo and Ondo states. We traversed the oil-producing communities along the famous Escravos and Forcados Rivers in Delta state and further down to the oil-producing communities at the Delta and Bayelsa fringes of the Ramos River.
Your Excellency, the Presidency invited me to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to help articulate the issues underscoring the resurgence of violent attacks on national oil and gas assets as well as producing a blueprint for a Presidential visit to states in the Niger Delta.
I was further co-opted as an individual from the Niger Delta States to attend the Inter-Ministerial Committee meetings on the Niger Delta headed by the former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo. The government saddled the Committee with the avowed responsibility of addressing topical issues concerning the Niger Delta such as the then ongoing unrest in the region, the Ogoni clean-up, and the Nigerian Maritime Okerenkoko, to mention but a few.
Your Excellency, it suffices to say that I was in no small measure involved in working out the details and itinerary of the Presidential visit to the various states in the region headed by the former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo and assisted by the former Minister for State Petroleum, and former Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu. It began on the 16th of January, 2017 in Delta State, and in other states in the region.
It is very important to state currently, that one of the conscientious outcomes of the Presidential visit to the region was the procurement of the services of the Tantita Security Services Limited to partner with the Nigerian Navy and NNPCL to intensify the fight against crude oil theft and secure national oil and gas assets from destruction.
Having the capability and profound understanding to handle the complexities and sophistication that characterize the syndicated criminal activities of oil theft, oil assets vandalism, and mitigation of environmental despoliation in the region, Tantita Security Services Limited is a square peg in a square hole.
Please accept the assurances of my highest regard.
Yours sincerely,
Dcn. Kingsley Otuaro Esq”, the letter stated.
Immediate Past Deputy Governor of Delta State.