Oil theft: Enemies of Nigeria, Niger Delta working against Tantita contract renewal

Oil theft: Enemies of Nigeria, Niger Delta working against Tantita contract renewal — Group

Suspected unrepentant oil thieves and critics working against the renewal of the pipeline surveillance contract to Tantita Security Services Nigeria Ltd. (TSSNL) are the enemies of Nigeria and the Niger Delta, whose singular motive is to ensure the return of massive illegal bunkering along the coastal areas with both their local and international collaborators.

This is the submission of the South-South Professionals & Transparency Initiative (SSPTI), in a statement signed by its Chairman and Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ugochukwu Alozie, and Engr. Kayode Ayomide, and made available to journalists on Thursday in Warri, Delta State.

The professionals, who appealed to the Federal Government not to succumb to the ongoing cheap blackmail against TSSNL in renewing the contract, stated that the outfit had done remarkably well in policing the nation’s critical assets across the region.

While basing its defence for Tantita’s contract renewal on statistical evidence of crude oil theft along the Niger Delta waterways in the last 10 years, the body averred that the region had recorded drastic reductions in cases of pipeline vandalism and illegal oil trade that were prevalent in the area before the security contract was awarded to the outfit in 2022.

“South-South Professionals & Transparency Initiatives (SSPTI), as the name implies, is a group made up of professionals drawn from various fields of human endeavours with diverse ethnic backgrounds but residents in various states across the Niger Delta region.

“Our members are bonded by convictions to promote good governance through probity and accountability of public funds, as well as ensuring a secured environment for the nation’s critical assets towards the realisation of an egalitarian society where our common patrimony would be protected for our collective good.

“We have watched with keen interest the blackmailing, falsehood, as well as political and personal interest that has taken place in recent times over the renewal of the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to Tantita Security Services, and we made the bold decision to say enough is enough of the desperate efforts by some cabals to hijack the security contract for selfish reasons,” the statement read in part.

The group further observed that it had it on good authority that the cabals are politicians who were newly appointed into office as ministers and National Assembly lawmakers, mostly from the zone, alongside some self-seeking ex-militants who are taking advantage of their closeness to President Bola Tinubu to either hijack the contract or take a good percentage off it as their entitlement.

“It is evident that these cabals within the corridors of power of the present administration are working in conjunction with a section of the military who are not too comfortable with the uncompromising nature of the Tantita operatives along the creeks while carrying out their illicit oil deals.

From the available statistics at our disposal, it is evident that illegal oil deals across the region have reduced drastically in the last year since the surveillance contract was awarded to Tantita, as opposed to what was experienced in previous years when cases of crude oil theft rose embarrassingly, even with the intimidating presence of the military in our area.

“We are therefore using this medium to call on President Bola Tinubu not to succumb to any kind of pressure or influence from any quarter not to renew the contract of Tantita Security Services to sustain the obvious improvement in the nation’s crude oil capacity production per day.

“We also want to appeal to President Tinubu, as the substantive Minister of Petroleum, to understand the need to protect the environment of the people along coastal areas from severe pollution of the waterways as a result of illegal bunkering activities, which have drastically reduced in recent time due to the effectiveness of Tantita operatives in checking criminal activities in the region,” the group pleaded.