BREAKING NEWS: Federal Government to Sustain Partnership with Tantita Security Services in Curbing Oil Theft and Pipeline Vandalism

In a tour of government assets in some Niger Delta states, President Bola Tinubu’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, announced that the Federal Government would continue its partnership with Tantita Security Services Limited in the fight against oil theft and pipeline vandalism. Ribadu also stated that additional measures would be taken to ensure pipeline security in the region.

During the tour of oil facilities in the Niger Delta, Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, commended Tantita management for their efforts in protecting pipelines in the area. Lokpobiri, accompanied by Ribadu, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, expressed the government’s determination to tackle pipeline vandalism and oil theft.

Lokpobiri said, “We’re here because of the problem of pipeline vandalisation and illegal bunkering that is going on in the Niger Delta. I believe that it has become an existential problem, and we need to fight them. What is happening here is so bad that we cannot even know the implications unless maybe when people start dying in their numbers, that is when people will know that a few persons who were profiting from this crime are here to wipe all of them out. So, as a responsible government, we have decided that we are going to put a stop to it. We are going to work with stakeholders to ensure that we stop all this nonsense in our society.”

Furthermore, an oil exploration monitoring group, the Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change (NDIMRC), called on President Bola Tinubu to renew the Tantita pipelines surveillance contract. The group urged the Federal Government to collaborate with Tantita, owned by former militant leader Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), to protect critical oil and gas infrastructure, secure permanent peace in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, and increase oil production.

However, Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara emphasized that unless the Federal Government takes action against the powerful Abuja cartel funding oil theft, all efforts to combat the crime would be futile. Fubara stated, “What breeds all of this is unemployment and poverty. The big people in this business aren’t from here (operating environment). They are those in Abuja who have a license to operate. If they are not encouraging it, I don’t think it will thrive. We need to work, not just on the locals, but also see what we can do to really clamp down on those big ones that sit in Abuja that are a big part of this.”