PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
After the discovery of about 50 points where crude oil was pumped into vessels on the high seas, a private security outfit — Tantita Security Services Limited, owned by ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, a.k.a Tompolo, has recorded another success in its surveillance operations in the Niger Delta.
It busted eight members of a suspected crude oil theft syndicate while they were pumping crude oil from a Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL, pipeline in Delta State, into an improvised 87-metre long ocean-going vessel, MT Deino.
Tompolo’s operatives and security agents had carried out a joint operation and in the process swooped on the captain of the vessel, Captain Temple Manasseh from Bayelsa State.
“Seven other suspects were arrested. They had pumped 605 cubic metres of crude oil into the vessel with 12 compartments from an illegal connection attached to a CNL crude pipeline, between Abiteye community and Escravos in Warri council area.
Persecondnews recalls that Tompolo was in September given a N4 billion surveillance contract by the federal government as part of efforts to curb large-scale oil theft in the region.
Reactions had trailed the award of the contract to an individual and not to security agencies.
The vessel had an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) number — 7210526.
The vessel, it was gathered, was arrested for oil bunkering in September 2021, but was released under controversial circumstances.
It is known for its notoriety in illegally loading crude oil from Nigeria to Ghana for several years.
This time after being caught, the owners of the vessel had offered a bribe of $25 dollars to secure release the vessel.
Meanwhile, all the eight suspects, including the captain, have been handed over to the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta and are currently being held for questioning at the 3 Battalion, Nigerian Army, Effurun, near Warri.
The captain of the ship, Temple Manasseh, told reporters: “I am not the one that loaded the vessel; seven boys hijacked me and loaded the vessel. I was in Escravos anchorage before they hijacked me and loaded crude.
“I do not know where the boys are, when Tompolo boys came, they ran away. It happened on October 6 and the operation was for about two and half hours, they loaded the vessel after a Chevron facility.”
However, Marine Intelligence Consultant to Tantita Security Services Limited, Captain Warren Enisuoh, who shed light on the operation, said: “The vessel is 87 metres long with 12 cargo compartments. It is not an ocean-going vessel, it is a river vessel, but somehow, they converted it into an ocean vessel.
“The crew is very smart, no doubt about that, but they are not smarter than the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, and the country.
“It is among the list of vessels being monitored constantly and it has been evading the authorities for some time. It is frequenting the Niger Delta and carrying crude illegally to Ghana, precisely the Port of Tema.
“Therefore, Tantita laid ambush for this vessel and it fell into it on October 6.
“It came in to load; they brought the ship from Escravos, and went alongside into the creeks where they did not know we were waiting.
“We allowed them to connect their hoses from the Escravos-Abiteye pipeline and from there they started pumping crude into the vessel.
“Then, we took them by surprise. The pipeline they were pumping from is actually a major line that goes to the Chevron Terminal.
“Five compartments had oil, the total crude we found is 650 cubic metres of crude oil separated into several compartments because they could not finish the operation before Tantita swooped on them.
“They did not go to the Chevron Terminal to load, they went illegally into the creek (bush) where they criminally connected their hoses to the major line and started pumping the crude from the pipeline into the vessel.
“In this very operation, we have arrested seven persons and they are all Nigerians by their names. They were taking the crude to Tema Port in Ghana.”
On Captain Manasseh’s claim that some hijackers abducted him to load crude onto his vessel, the Tantita consultant, Captain Enisuoh, said: “That is his claim but the documents prove otherwise.
He (Manasseh) said he joined the ship as captain, about two and a half months ago.
“But records show that the authorities detained the ship here in Nigeria, back in September 2021, but later released and the documents also show that he was the captain on board at the time and he said this was the first time he was on the ship.”
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