Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, an ex-militant leader, and the Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited (TSSNL) that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) engaged to shadow and provide intelligence on oil installations in parts of the Niger Delta have, according to the regulatory officials, performed strikingly since they secured the contract.
Omadino tirades
However, there was cause for concern lately when the leaders of the Itsekiri community in Delta State, known as Omadino, blamed the company and Tompolo, the Tantita chairman, for operational misconduct, ethnic favoritism, territorial renaming, and land encroachment.
The chairperson of the Egwa-tie community and a female activist named Mrs. Tsaye Mene had previously asserted that Tompolo’s narrow and false claims to Omadino lands were creating tensions between the Itsekiri and Ijaw ethnic groups.
In a sane society, Tompolo and other individuals who “rose to prominence through violence should be thoroughly investigated and be under government surveillance instead of being granted amnesty by late President Musa Yaradua, which seems clueless to him and the recent pipeline surveillance contract by the federal government,” according to an Itsekiri activist.
UPU, the apex Urhobo group, joins the fray
What appeared to be a minor altercation between Tompolo, TSSNL, and some Itsekiri communities took another dimension when the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), the umbrella body of the Urhobo ethnic group in the state, lashed out on the pipeline surveillance company, calling on the federal government to sack the firm from Urhobo land.
The president general of the UPU, Ese Gam Ode, and other Urhobo leaders, citing the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, which empower host communities to secure oil and gas facilities in their areas and impose penalties for acts of vandalism and sabotage, said the Urhobo people have to safeguard oil and gas facilities in their territory.
They said the UPU “cannot allow outsiders whose sole interests lie in the immediate profits to operate without accountability at the expense of the Urhobo communities.”
The union rejected the continued operations of TSSNL and demanded that the oil facilities surveillance contract in Urhobo land be awarded to a qualified indigenous security contractor of Urhobo nationality.”
With the UPU pronouncement, Omadino denunciation, and similar complaints by other Itsekiri groups, they separately drew a battle line against Tompolo and Tantita.
Tactical withdrawal
However, the UPU on Monday, July 7, withdrew its earlier fierce opposition to the operations of the TSSNL in Urhobo land.
The decision followed heavy backlash from the Urhobo youths, who openly criticized the UPU for its stance against the Tantita on the surveillance contract.
The UPU said in a letter to the National Security Adviser titled “Withdrawal of Earlier Letter and Resolution of Issues Related to Tantita Security Operations in Urhobo Land” that the information it had previously expressed worried about had since changed.
“The information available to us as of the time of writing the initial letter has since changed,” it said in part. According to our most recent understanding of the circumstances, we have had a productive conversation with Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited in order to peacefully settle the earlier concerns.
“We hereby formally withdraw our earlier letter dated June 2, which was acknowledged by Mr. Isah Haruna on June 24, in light of this development.”
Cluster coordinators in Itsekiri refute Omadino’s claims
The TSSNL’s gainfully employed Itsekiri and Urhobo youths did not take their people’s claims lightly.
The Itsekiri cluster coordinators of the Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited (TSSNL) pipeline surveillance operations said in a statement titled “Setting the Record Straight: Rebuttal to the Omadino Allegations against Tantita Security Services” that a group within the Omadino community was responsible for the false accusation.
”Tantita is not involved in land grabbing, renaming, or ethnic bias,” declared Samson Uwatse, the cluster coordinator for Ugbodede, along with other coordinators for Itsekiri, adding that Tantita Security Services was not a land administration agency. Its only mandate, according to a federal surveillance contract, is to protect Nigeria’s oil and gas infrastructure.
Its activities are limited to pipeline corridors under federal control in Delta State and beyond, including Maciva, Tunana, Egua, Abiteye, Escravos, Dibi, and Olero, among many others. Any infrastructure used is temporary and mobile, deployed for surveillance and not for land possession or conversion.
”Allegations that Tantita is renaming ancestral lands, grabbing territory, or interfering in traditional matters are entirely false and reckless. There is no verifiable evidence of encroachment or oppression. We challenge anyone to present credible evidence of Tantita encroaching on any community’s land or displacing its people.
”On the contrary, Tantita has created over 1,500 direct and indirect jobs for Itsekiri youths, including over 135 from the Omadino, Obodo, and Opumami clusters alone. It works closely with reputable Itsekiri community leaders such as Chief Ayiri, Chief Ebosa, and the Iyatsere of Warri Kingdom.
”If any claims of land grabbing or oppression were true, we, the Itsekiri coordinators, would be the first to raise the alarm. Omadino is not marginalized.
”The personal attacks on Tompolo and calls for contract revocation are politically driven. Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) and others leading Tantita have displayed unmatched commitment and effectiveness in tackling oil theft. Calls for their arrest and the revocation of Tantita’s contract are unjust, politically motivated, and harmful to national security,” the Itsekiri coordinators said.
In response, Urhobo TSSNL coordinators attack the UPU
The Urhobo coordinators of the TSSNL also lambasted the UPU. The president general of the Ugborhen community, Daniel Okpetsagha, told reporters that the Tantita has over 3,500 youths from 88 communities and 16 kingdoms of Urhobo land currently in its employment.
High Chief Government Ekpemuopolo, TSSNL managing director Kestin Pondi, and Dr. Paul Bebenimibo were all elected with a vote of confidence.
”Anyone familiar with Tantita’s operations knows that all oil-bearing communities participate directly in securing facilities within their territories,” stated the Urhobo coordinators.
“In Ijaw land, they provide the bulk of patrol teams; the same is true of the Itsekiri, Isoko, Kwale, and most certainly Urhobo communities.
Almost 4,000 Urhobo indigenes earn a monthly wage as Tantita operatives and coordinators. From Iwhremeragha to Unenurhie, from Kokori to Oguname-Olomu, from Ovwiamuge-Agbarho to Ugbomro, and from Mosogar to Ibada-Elume to Arhavwarhien, Tantita is on the ground through Urhobo indigenes. These communities, among many others, are protecting the nation’s national assets in collaboration with Tantita.
”Every single kilometer of pipeline traversing Urhobo land is protected by Urhobo indigenes 100 percent. Every community in Urhobo land has been given slots as operatives and coordinators and is responsible for the safekeeping of the pipelines in their domain.
”For over two years now, Tantita’s Urhobo coordinators and operatives have worked hard to reduce vandalism, oil theft, illegal refining, and environmental degradation to the barest minimum. No one, not a single community, has complained about their performance.
”Tantita, with her state-of-the-art technological capacity and extraordinary managerial skills, has managed to make the work look effortless; therefore, every ignorant person thinks I can do it just as well!
”Nigerians must understand that people who use socio-cultural organizations are being misled by the information at their disposal and should disregard it.
The president general of the Evwreni community, Chief Ukpebitere, cautioned, “No one should bring division between the Urhobo nation and Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited for personal greed and interest.”
Oil thieves behind the attacks — Isoko oil-bearing communities
The Isoko patriots and president-generals of oil-bearing communities, on Wednesday, dissociated the Isoko ethnic nationality from the ethnic agitations against the TSSNL, saying it was a distraction by oil thieves.
The chairman of all Isoko president generals and president-general of the Irri kingdom, Chief Idonis Uwubare, who spoke to reporters, said, “We have credible intelligence indicating that these orchestrated protests are part of a broader strategy aimed at dismantling the oil surveillance architecture, thereby creating a vacuum for renewed illegal oil bunkering activities and returning the region to the glory days of unmitigated crude oil theft.
”It is imperative to emphasize that before the award of the surveillance contract to the Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited—a wholly indigenous company—several non-indigenous and non-Deltan contractors, including Eraskorp Nigeria Limited and, more recently, the Ocean Marine Services Limited, had previously executed similar contracts without any recorded ethnic-based opposition or protest, even during periods of rampant crude oil theft, which at one point reduced the country’s daily production to a mere 700,000 bpd.
”The silence of these ethnic agitators during that critical time is telling. While Nigeria’s economy bled profusely from oil theft, while our communities were militarized and turned into conflict zones, and while our ecosystem suffered irreversible damage, these so-called defenders of ethnic agitators remained silent, even when the surveillance contracts were managed by non-Deltans.
”We, therefore, find it grossly misleading for individuals who are either non-residents or are unfamiliar with the prevailing realities on the ground in Isoko to make provocative calls for the split or cancellation of Tantita’s contract. Tantita is currently one of the largest employers of labor in the Isoko area and has contributed significantly to regional stability.
”We strongly condemn these attempts by faceless groups to derail the vital work of the Tantita Security Services and, by extension, the federal government’s renewed efforts to secure the nation’s oil and gas assets.”
