Tompolo’s security firm, Tantita, counter accuses Nigerian Navy of protecting oil thieves

The management of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, an oil pipeline surveillance company hired by the Federal Government, has accused the Nigerian Navy of protecting certain alleged oil thieves.

Tantita is owned by a former militant leader, Governent Ekpomuopkolo, aka Tompolo.

It said that while pursuing the suspects on the open seas towards a naval installation, the Navy detained four of its members.

This was alleged in a statement released by Tantita management and provided to journalists on Saturday in Warri, Delta State, following the alleged arrest of four company surveillance employees by the Navy earlier in the week.

The Navy had claimed that Tantita patrol team was arrested following the realisation that the “four individuals were part of a movement of a large wooden boat laden with 11x1000L Geepee tanks with product suspected to be stolen crude oil.”

“The four arrested individuals beckoned on the two fiber boats to approach them but when they noticed NN patrol teams, the boats altered courses fled, and abandoned the large wooden boat laden with 11 x 1000L Geepee tanks with product suspected to be stolen crude oil.

“We have identified the arrested individuals as Asonja Goddey (28), Obajimi Oluwaseyifunmi (38), Awoowo Aribo (35), and Oluwadaisi Balogun (40), all hailing from Igbokoda in Ondo State.

Read Also: NNPC destroys alleged illegal filling station, barge uncovered by Tompolo’s firm

“The owner of the boat they were trying to forcibly employ, Ishola Ojubuyi (42), is also taken into custody.

“The Nigerian Navy has started an investigation to unravel the circumstances of the incident, particularly the possession of firearms used in the community, economic sabotage, how the product came from Ondo State to Lagos State as well as attempting to steal a boat engine from the locals,” Commander of Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Beecroft, Commodore Kolawole Oguntuga, had explained.

However, the Tantita management, while declaring the Nigerian Navy’s statement as “a tragicomedy of errors” insisted that it was nothing but a smear campaign.

The statement reads, “The Navy has been sharing pictures in social media of the Tantita staff in their custody in various shades of undress but kept silent about the names of the boat crew whom they were chasing. In short, where is the crew that the Tantita personnel chased into Ibeju Lekki?”, Tantita queried.

“These family men put their lives at risk for the good of the nation and are now being made to suffer ridicule for doing the right thing. It serves to demoralise good men everywhere who have sought and are seeking to do something to better our nation”, the firm stated.

It noted that “As soon as these men were arrested, the management of Tantita reached out to the Nigerian Navy seeking clarification of the situation. For four days, the Navy said they were investigating and that the men would be released”.

Tantita claimed to have already gotten the outcome of the Navy’s investigation on the incident saying “there are even more damning revelations, which out of courtesy to the Navy hierarchy and the needs of national security we will not divulge on the pages of a newspaper”.

The firm however stated that “the continued detention by the Nigerian Navy of these five brave, selfless Nigerians who risked their lives on the high seas to protect our commonwealth is a disservice to our nation”.

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