Tompolo and his boys arrest ship captain and seven others loading crude oil illegally in Delta State

MEMBERS of Niger Delta militant leader Government Ekpemupolo's pipeline protection team have arrested a ship captain and seven other members of a crude oil syndicate who were caught pumping crude using an illegal pipeline in Delta State.

In August this year, Mr Ekpemupolo popularly known as Tompolo, was awarded a contract by the federal government to protect oil pipelines in a dramatic reversal of policy. Up until then, Tompolo was declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as he was due to face charges relating to contracts he was awarded by the government of former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

 After the Buhari administration declared him a wanted man, Tompolo subsequently went into hiding to avoid arrest from the government. However, in a bid to avoid an escalation of violence on the Niger Delta, the federal government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) agreed to engage Tompolo to end illegal bunkering, illegal refining and oil theft in the area.

Through his company known as Tantita Security Services Limited (TSSL), Tompolo has set about protecting oil pipelines in the Niger Delta. This week, its operatives ambushed and arrested eight members of a suspected crude oil syndicate while they were pumping crude oil from a Chevron pipeline in Delta State, into an improvised 87-metre long ocean-going vessel, MT Deino.

Tantita operatives and Nigerian security officials swooped on the captain of the vessel, Captain Temple Manasseh from Bayelsa State and seven other suspects. As of the time of their arrest, they had pumped 605 cubic metres of crude oil into the vessel with 12 compartments from an illegal connection attached to a Chevron crude pipeline, between Abiteye community and Escravos in Warri South Local Government Area.

When it was impounded on the Escravos River, the vessel bore the International Maritime Organisation number 7210526.  Sources said the vessel, arrested for oil bunkering in September 2021 but later released, probably after greasing some palms, had been frequenting the Niger Delta and illegally loading crude oil from Nigeria to Ghana for many years.

Apparently, the owners of the vessel offered to give one Tantita official a kickback of N25m in dollars to release the vessel but he rejected their offer. All eight suspects, including the captain, have been handed over to the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta and are bei8ng detained by the Third Battalion of the Nigerian Army at Effurun, near Warri.

Captain Temple Manasseh, the captain of the ship, said that the seven others hijacked him and forced him to the location to load the vessel for them. He added: “I am not the one that loaded the vessel, as seven boys hijacked me and loaded the vessel.

"I was in Escravos anchorage before they hijacked me and loaded crude. I do not know where the boys are, when Tompolo boys came, they ran away. It happened on October 6 and the operation was for about two and half hours, they loaded the vessel at a Chevron facility.”