Former Niger Delta militants in Ondo State have called on President Bola Tinubu to decentralise the surveillance contract awarded to Tantita Security Services.
The PUNCH reports that Tantita, a private security company owned by an ex-Niger Delta agitator, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, was awarded a multi-billion naira contract to secure the oil pipelines in the country in 2022.
The ex-militants, under the umbrella of The Niger Delta Coastline Vanguard, said the group had been preventing the activities of vandals in the area, adding that the surveillance contract should be decentralised to accommodate them.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, the president of the group, Job Omotuwa, appealed to the president to allow his group to cover Ondo, Ogun, and Lagos State littoral corridor.
Omotuwa said, ”The Niger Delta Coastline Vanguard is a group of ex-militants who, under the Presidential Amnesty Program submitted weapons and were granted pardoned in 2017 with a promise to be properly integrated into the Federal Government Amnesty program with all accrued benefits.
“‘We are also licensed to operate under a registered company called Steve-Latcon Security Services and Niger Delta Coastline Vanguard which have impressive records of waterway security within and outside the state over a long period.
“It is on records that on 14th November 2021 at Abereke, a riverine community in iIlajelocal government, about 8 persons were arrested in four boats loaded with drums of Automotive Gas Oil popularly called diesel, this arrest was carried out by our security service, the NDCV Patrol Team lead by me(General Omotuwa) in conjunction with the Antivandal Unit of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, Ondo State Command. In an earlier effort, on 28th October, of the same year, a vessel was equally arrested by our team when the suspects engaged in illegal dealings in petroleum products business on the high sea.”
He called on the president to consider the group’s appeal for the sake of equity, fairness, and peace in the region.
Omotuwa said, “We appeal to the President to consider NDCV in the ongoing decentralization plan of the pipeline surveillance contract to handle the entire corridor of the South West littoral States (Ondo, Ogun, Lagos) in the project for equity, fairness, and peace in the region. Also, for the Presidential Amnesty Commission to give full integration of this body into its plans, policies and program.”
He vowed that ex-militants in the state would resist the imposition of any organisation to secure pipelines in the region.
“We shall not allow or accept any deliberate attempt by government or agent of the government to impose someone from another region who does not belong to our ethnic nationality on us to sustain the existing peace in the region, ” Omotuwa added.
