metro
We apprehended many soldiers involved in oil theft — Niger Delta security chief
For many years, security personnel deployed in the Niger Delta to guard oil installations and stop crude oil bunkering had turned themselves into oil bandits in collusion with some International Oil Companies, IOCs, government officials and oil bunkers.
They all blamed community folks and minor bunkers for illegally refining crude with amateur technology in the creeks.
There was nobody to speak out for the endangered communities until the Minister of State for Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, and Group Managing Director of NNPCL, Dr. Mele Kyari, under immense pressure from President Muhammadu Buhari, to stop the increasing oil theft, thought out of the box.
Sylva and Kyari had been in contact separately and mutually with the former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, for more than a year over the worsening theft.
Their discussions convinced the duo that he could be a magic wand, but each time Tompolo’s name came up in Aso Villa, and private meetings, some top security officials pooh-poohed the idea.
It was easy for Buhari, who, in 2016, canceled a “no cure no pay” contract that Global West, a company in which Tompolo served, as a technical partner, without a lucid understanding of the surrounding intrigues, to agree with the naysayers.
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However, with each passing day in their discussions and intelligence from Tompolo on the connivance of security and industry officials without which the massive thieving would not be possible, Sylva and Kyari approached Buhari with accessible facts.
They did not find it difficult getting the buy-in of the Chief of the Defense Staff, General Lucky Irabor, who already had the instructions of the Commander-in-Chief to confront the situation head-on and bring the perpetrators to book.
Finally, a converted President approved the hiring of Tompolo, especially as the private surveillance contractors, who had been on the job, in the last few years, had done little
The trio of Irabor, Sylva, and Kyari are together, ever since, in the battle.
Tompolo’s engagement by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) triggered quite some controversy, but Sylva and Kyari were unmoved by the many distractions.
What was clear to them was that the illegal bunkering points had to be discovered and clamped; conspiring security and industry officials also had to be identified and disciplined, and the entire surveillance system overhauled for oil production to pick up once again.
Sunday Vanguard learned that some top security officials serving in Lagos and Abuja were part of the oil-bunkering consortium with their foot soldiers in the oil-rich region.
The oil cabal allegedly sponsored a campaign of calumny against Tompolo, recruiting some youths to protest against the ex-militant leader handling pipeline surveillance contracts in their areas.
It was not surprising when the former militant leader, who boasted that he knows the in-and-out of all the creeks in the Niger Delta, started making startling discoveries, less than a month, after his company, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, TSSNL, was engaged.
Working with selected security officials, Tompolo’s men uncovered large-scale and sophisticated oil theft machinery going on in the deep swamps at Yokri, close to the Forcados Terminal.
metro
Police nab fake inspector, recover stolen cars
Police nab fake inspector, recover stolen cars
Operatives of the Rivers State Police Command have arrested a fake Inspector who engages in armed robbery and car snatching, among other crimes.
This was disclosed by the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Olatunji Dosu while parading the suspect among other suspected criminals on Wednesday.
According to the Dosu, Monday Igbali, the fake inspector, was a former sergeant who was dismissed after being charged in a kidnapping case in 2021.
He noted that three fancy cars were recovered from Igbali, who runs a gang of five criminals.
Dosu states, “The command commenced an investigation in response to a report filed on August 11, 2023, by one Fibika Kingsley that his Lexus EX330 had been stolen at gunpoint along Agip Road by five gunmen.’’
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“The investigations led to the arrest of one Monday Igbali, aged 43, a native of Okwuzi in the Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA of Rivers State.
“He is a former police sergeant who was dismissed after being indicted in a kidnapping case in 2021.
“Since his dismissal, he has continued to parade himself as a police officer, even claiming to be an Inspector of Police, a rank he did not attain before his dismissal.
“He works with a gang of five, with four gang members still at large.
“He has robbed a total of nine cars and sold them for between N1.3m and N2.5m each. He was arrested on March 8, 2024, at his home in Chokocho, Etche, after the police conducted due surveillance following investigations.
“We have recovered three cars from him: a Lexus 330, a Lexus IS250, and a Toyota Highlander.”
Police nab fake inspector, recover stolen cars
metro
Breaking: Military releases FirstNews editor, Segun Olatunji
Breaking: Military releases FirstNews editor, Segun Olatunji
The military has finally released Segun Olatunji, editor of FirstNews, who has been in their custody since March 15.
Olatunji was released on Thursday to Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) General Secretary Iyobosa Uwugiaren and The Nation Deputy Editor Yomi Odunuga under a bridge in Asokoro, Abuja.
It was also learnt that the documents for his release were signed inside a security vehicle with heavily armed operatives.
The security agents were said to be masked and the number plates of their vehicles covered up.
The editor was abducted by armed men in his home in Iyana Odo, Abule Egba area of Lagos, on March 15.
His family members were kept in the dark on his whereabouts and why he was arrested.
Several groups, including the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Nigerian Guild of Editors, almost daily mounted pressure on the government for Olatunji’s release.
On Wednesday, the Nigerian chapter of the International Press Institute said the journalist was in the custody of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).
metro
BREAKING: Court orders military to release 313 suspected terrorists
BREAKING: Court orders military to release 313 suspected terrorists
A Federal High Court in Borno State has ordered the release of at least 313 suspected terrorists detained by the military.
The court ordered their release due to a lack of evidence to charge the suspects after the investigation.
Maj. Gen. Buba Edward, the Director of Defence Media Operations, announced this during the operational briefing on Thursday in Abuja.
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He said, “The court ordered the release for want of evidence after the conclusion of investigation and other ancillary matters.
“Accordingly, they would be handed over to the Borno State Government for further action.”
BREAKING: Court orders military to release 313 suspected terrorists
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