The management of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, TSSNL, owned by Niger Delta activist, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, has come down hard on the Nigerian Navy over the recent arrest by the latter of the former's personnel, describing the act as “a disservice to our nation.”

It would be recalled that the Nigerian Navy, in a news report recently published in the media and credited to the Commander, NNS Beecroft, Commodore Kolawole Oguntuga, had claimed it arrested four Tantita personnel for alleged crude oil theft near Itolu community, Lekki, in Lagos State after residents of the area raised the alarm following gunshots from the waterside.

However, Tantita, which made its position known  on Friday, September 1, 2023, in a press release titled ‘The Arrest of Tantita Operatives and Parade by the Nigerian Navy - A Tragicomedy of Errors’ debunked the Navy's report while giving its own account of the incident.

Tantita in its press release narrated that "...On Monday the 28th of August 2023 at about 0130hours a Tantita Security Services Patrol team operating in the Ondo State area received credible intelligence that a motorised wooden boat was illegally loading crude oil from an Offshore Oil Well Jacket - in fact, the same Well Jacket in OML 110 operated by Cavendish Petroleum Nigeria Limited, where the MT TURA II was caught stealing Crude Oil a few months ago.

"An advance team was dispatched to find the wooden boat while a back up team consisting of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) component of the Government Security Agencies (GSA) was assembled to follow through on the lead. While we cannot name the NSCDC personnel for obvious reasons, they were six in number and our personnel were eight, not four in number.

"The advance team with the help of local fisher folk was able to determine that the motorised wooden boat was heading in the direction of Lagos and gave hot pursuit. Upon noticing the approaching Tantita teams, the crew of the motorised wooden boat abandoned the wooden boat for their speed boat. One team of Tantita and NSCDC personnel boarded the wooden boat to secure the evidence while another team gave it a hot pursuit," the statement reads.

Continuing further, the statement added that, "There is video evidence of the Tantita team together with NSCDC personnel coming alongside the wooden boat, boarding and attempting to secure the boat. The video also shows the Tantita crew trying to secure the wooden boat which was taking in water (this could have resulted from an attempt to scuttle the boat by the escaping crew; anyone who understands Yoruba can listen in on the conversations).

"Surprisingly, the escaping crew of the motorised wooden boat fled in the direction of the Nigerian Navy Forward Operation Base at Ibeju-Lekki, so the Tantita and NSCDC personnel followed in hot pursuit believing that the criminals would meet their Waterloo there. They were wrong. Instead of the fleeing crew being arrested, it was the Tantita personnel who came down to apprehend the fleeing crew that was arrested. After arresting Tantita personnel and freeing the crew, the Nigerian Navy personnel then went to the motorised wooden boat and drove out the combined Tantita/GSA team trying to keep the boat and the evidence afloat," it stated.

With the Navy's refusal to release the arrested personnel, Tantita accused the Navy of a smear campaign to tarnish the reputation of the security firm engaged by the federal government to secure the nation's pipeline assets, while it raised questions on the whereabouts of the suspected oil thieves chased by Tantita's staff, and the location of the motorised wooden boat conveying stolen crude.

The security firm which frowned at 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" said such "is a disservice to our nation" while it also alleged of having in its possession "even more damning revelations" against the Navy.

It would be recalled that a couple of weeks ago there was a face off between the Nigerian Navy and Tantita over the arrest by the latter of a suspected vessel, MT Praisel, suspected to be conveying stolen crude, but which the Navy later released. This second incident seem to further aggravate the relationship as Tantita had insisted that the act the Navy “seems to be playing is a poorly written tragicomedy.”

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