Fresh storm over Tompolo’s N48b oil pipeline contract
Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, yesterday ignited a fresh storm over the N48 billion crude oil pipeline surveillance contract awarded to Tantita Security Services led by former militant leader, Government Ekpemepulo aka Tompolo, by the Federal Government.
The governor said in Port Harcourt that it was wrong to award such a contract to ‘one man’.
He said the decision would not achieve the objective it was meant to serve because,in his view, an individual should not have control over the assets in another’s territory.
The Ikwerre Peoples Congress (IPC) threw its weight behind the governor, saying there was no reason by the government to exclude critical stakeholders like the Ikwerre people whose land hosts a large percentage of the pipelines.
But some other Niger Delta leaders and stakeholders under the aegies of Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change (NDIMRC) took an opposing view.
The Tompolo contract, they said, should be renewed as it has helped in checking oil theft in the region.
Fubara, who mentioned no name, told a high powered Federal Government delegation led by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, that “Security of pipeline should not be given to one man or one person.”
He said: “How can someone from Kalabari be controlling the pipeline in Ogoni? There is no way it will work.
