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From Joseph Obukata, Warri
The group, Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (CHURAC), has disagreed with Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State over his recent statement that rather than empower the federating units, (State Governments) that had set up security outfits, the Federal Government had permitted non-state actors to hear heavy assault weapons in the guise of the multi-billion naira pipeline surveillance contract awarded to a former militant, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.
Governor Akeredolu had conticised the pipeline security contract awarded to Tompolo’s company, some individuals and private organisations, describing the proposal as “unsettling”.
The governor who expressed fear that non-state actors are now being empowered to bear arms, noted that more disquieting is the barely disguised hostility displayed by the federal government against some state governments that established security outfits to fill the widening gaps in the scope of security coverage in the country.
“The Federal Government, through the Office of the National Security Adviser, has been consistent in its refusal to accede to the request by some State in the Federation to strengthen the complementary initiatives adopted to protect lives and property. This is done in spite of the knowledge that the very issues which necessitated the creation of these outfits support providing adequate weaponry. All attempts to persuade the Federal Government to look, critically, into the current security architecture have been rebuffed despite the manifest fundamental defects engendered by over-centralisation, Akeredolu had said.
But reacting in a statement made available to Daily Sun in Warri on Friday, CHURAC’s Chairman Board of Trustees, Cleric E. Alaowei, Esq., said that Governor Akeredolu was wrong to have likened the pipeline security contract to the state police proposal he and other state governments are pushing.
“The oil pipeline surveillance contract awarded to some private companies in the Niger Delta by the NNPC Limited is not the same as State Police”, Alaowei said.
He said that though Nigerians are yearning for the decentralization of the police force or better still, allow States to recruit their own security forces to complement the federal police force, pipeline surveillance work does not require the recipients to bear arms.
The Niger Delta activist said that Tompolo’s job was more of intelligence gathering on activities of bunkerers on the network of pipelines in the Niger Delta and expose culprits to security agencies who are bound to work with his team, he added.
“This is not the first time this contract is awarded to Tompolo or some other persons. The modus operandi of the pipeline surveillance workers is to expose the criminal syndicates in the Niger Delta region to the security agencies.
“Theirs are more like an intelligent gathering because the oil host communities know the topography where the pipelines are criss-crossing the region”.
He said that in the case of state police, the force members are made to carry arms if the federal government grants them license to bear arms.
“People should not confuse themselves with the two. FG’s refusal to accept State Police has nothing to do with the pipeline surveillance contract. The security agencies are comfortable working with Tompolo and others in the Niger Delta to secure the nation’s economic assets.
“We, therefore, disagree with the Governor of Ondo State, His Excellency, Rotimi Akeredoku, SAN. Nigerians should not resort to an unfounded propaganda to blackmail the Federal Government over this laudable initiative.
“It’s not true that non-state actors will bear arms to guard the oil pipelines. It has never happened before and we believe it will not still happen under the present arrangements.
“Tompolo’s traducers should know that late Capt. Hosa Okunbor’s Ocean Marine Company is currently executing the same contract for the NNPC Limited in the Niger Delta region. Why is Tompolo’s own causing uproar?
“Nigeria is daily losing barrels of crude oil to the economic saboteurs. The Government needs Tompolo who’s a maritime security expert to help boost her dwindling oil productions. His traducers should leave him alone. His scope of work is to locate the illegal bunkerers and expose them to the appropriate authorities”, Alaowei reiterated.
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