It hasn’t been business as usual for ‘oil thieves’ operating in the Niger Delta since the Federal Government handed a N4b a month contract to Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo a.k.a Tompolo to secure the next work of oil pipelines.
But now those who are involved in siphoning oil according to reports have been sending death threats to Tompolo and to show they mean business one his boats belonging to Tantita Security Services Limited was attacked by gunmen on Saturday in one of the Niger Delta Creeks during a routine patrol near Aleibiri community, Ekeremor LGA in Bayelsa State.
“For threat messages, it is normal. Since illegal oil vessels were intercepted some weeks ago, the threat messages assumed a dangerous dimension,” an aide to Tompolo named Waterway Crayfish was quoted by PM News as saying
“Just yesterday they sent threatening messages, but we have remained unperturbed. It is something we can handle.
“We are knowledgeable about the operation in the territorial waters of Nigeria and as a former militant, I clearly have the capacity to combat any possible attack from any illegal bunkerer with my men,” he said.
Since Tompolo took up the deal to protect the pipelines, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, illegal oil operations have been reduced drastically.
“Our Tantita Security Services Limited in the Creeks has been getting steady threat messages from suspected oil thieves to stop the illegal business of oil bunkering.
“No amount of threat and mudslinging would derail us from beaming searchlights on discoveries of illegal pipelines that were attached to the Forcados Terminal into the sea.” Crayfish added.
