VANGUARD
A fresh controversy has broken out in the Niger Delta over the interception of a vessel, Motor Tanker, MT PRAISEL, bearing a Togolese flag, suspected to have engaged in oil bunkering, Wednesday, August 2, by the operatives of a private security contractor, Tantita Security Service Nigeria Limited, TSSNL, in Delta State.
Concerned stakeholders, doubtful of the circumstances of the entanglement of Nigerian Navy officials in the vessel’s movement, weekend, called on the Federal Government to carry out a painstaking investigation and uncover the truth.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, had, last year, engaged the TSSNL owned by an ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, to monitor oil pipelines in Delta, Bayelsa, Ondo, and other oil-producing states.
TSSNL, which had successfully exposed many illegal oil pipelines and thieving vessels in the oil-rich region since its engagement, in a similar operation, last month, intercepted a vessel, MT TURA II, owned by an undisclosed oil cabal with 800,000 liters of stolen crude oil,on July 7, in Ondo state.
The truth, however, is that MT Tura II, set ablaze by security operatives, last month, in Delta state, was no other but MT ALLI-RIZA BEY, apprehended by the Navy in August 2013, and handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, only for it to escape from the custody of the anti-graft agency.
It was not until TSSNL operatives arrested the vessel 10 years after in Ondo state that the identity of the vessel and its escape from custody became manifest, but the oil cabal that deployed it to steal the nation’s crude oil for over a decade remained unknown.
On August 2 when TSSNL operatives, who had intelligence on the ocean-going vessel, spotted MT PRAISEL, which has a 1,117-ton capacity, with 8,100 barrels of suspected crude oil, they had their reservation about its mission, as a Navy gunboat escorted the vessel.
Navy officials stoutly resisted the attempt by the TSSNL to get security agents attached to the OPERATION DELTA SAFE to board the vessel to find out what it was carrying.
The resistance escalated the suspicion, as a top Navy official threatened to deal with the Tantita operatives, who refused to back down.
Sources said the unwavering Tantita operatives contacted their superiors, who got across to the National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, and Chief of Naval Staff, CNS, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla on the development.
According to information, the NSA and CNS granted the TSSNL an approval to examine the vessel, after which the Nigerian Navy directed the vessel to proceed to the Forward Operating Base in Escravos, Warri South West Local Government Area for further investigation of the product onboard.
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