The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) on Monday announced that following the receipt of credible intelligence, a private security contractor engaged by the firm, Messrs. Tantita Security Services, has intercepted a suspicious vessel with a cargo of crude oil on board.
Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, is owned by former Militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo.
The vessel, MT Tura II (IMO number: 6620462), owned by a Nigerian registered company, Holab Maritime Services Limited with registration number RC813311, it said, was heading to Cameroun with the cargo on board.
A statement by the national oil company signed by the spokesman of the NNPC, Garba Muhammad, noted that the vessel was apprehended at an offshore location at latitude 5.8197194477543235° and longitude 4.789002723991871°, with the captain and crew members on board.
According to the NNPC, preliminary investigations revealed that the crude oil cargo onboard was illegally sourced from a well jacket offshore Ondo State, Nigeria.
It added that there was no valid documentation for the vessel or the crude oil cargo onboard at the time of the arrest.
Further investigation into the activities of the vessel at the NNPC Limited command and control centre, Muhammad said, also revealed that the vessel had been operating in stealth mode for the last 12 years.
“The last reported location of the Vessel was Tin Can Port in July 2011,” he stated.
Details of the arrest and the outcomes of the investigations were escalated to the appropriate government authorities, upon which it was concluded to destroy the vessel to serve as a strong warning and deterrent to all those participating in such illegal activities to cease and desist, the NNPC said.
Destroying vessels involved in transporting stolen crude oil, it stressed, is of paramount importance as a strong deterrence.
“The illegal trade of stolen crude oil not only inflicts significant economic losses on Nigeria and legitimate stakeholders in the oil industry, but also perpetuates a cycle of corruption, environmental devastation, and social instability.
“NNPC Ltd. assures Nigerians that we will sustain the momentum in the war against crude oil theft until it is brought to a halt,” the national oil company said.
THISDAY gathered that the vessel had once been arrested with the contents delivered to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) while the vessel was handed over to the security agencies but allegedly escaped miraculously.
Briefing Journalists during an inspection of the vessel, anchored at Oporoza in Gbaramatu kingdom in Warri South West Local government area of Delta State on Monday, the Executive Director, Technical and Operations of Tantita Security Services, Captain Warredi Enisuoh said the vessel was arrested with 13 crew members during a sting operation in Ondo State.
He said the firm had deployed both human and technical intelligence in monitoring the movements of the vessel until it was finally caught last weekend.
Enisuoh disclosed that the original name of the vessel was Ali-Riza-Bey but was altered to MT Tura 11 to evade the eagle eyes is security agencies and, “unknown to the perpetrators, we have been monitoring the movements of the vessel until we finally apprehend her off the coast in Ondo State.”
He confirmed that the vessel had once been arrested for the same crude theft but disappeared in mysterious circumstances and “we are here with the same vessel committing the same atrocity.”
Enisuoh commended the security agencies for their cooperation in the task to rid the maritime domain free of criminal activities recalling that the arrested vessel was constructed in 1965.
Commander, Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Delta Safe (OPDS) Rear Admiral Olusegun Ferreira, who led other service chiefs to the scene, said investigation is ongoing to unravel the perpetrators of the act.
Emmanuel Addeh, Sunday Aborisade in Abuja and Sylvester Idowu in Warri
Follow us on:
