Nigeria loses over 400,000 barrels of oil daily to theft, despite the huge amounts of Money being paid for pipeline surveillance contracts.
The major beneficiary of this contract is non other than, former Niger Delta militant, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, who earns 1.5 billion naira monthly.
These facts have been revealed by the pioneer chairman of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Ahmed Tijani Ramalan.
He revealed that the government paid the former militant leader of Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Tompolo, to protect the nation’s maritime areas.
Dr Tijani cried out that despite these huge amounts being paid to militants to do a job meant for security operatives in the country, over 400,000 barrels of oil gets stolen daily.
He said;
“Over 400, 000 barrels of crude oil are being stolen daily from our shores under President Jonathan; yet we had a government that has the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, and the government of Jonathan decides to hand over the security of our maritime waters to Tompolo at a very exorbitant amount of money.
“And these same people that are given the job of our maritime security are the ones that are collaborating with the international shipping companies to steal our oil.”
He has further called on the new APC led government to revoke the contract with Tompolo.
“And if Buhari does not do so, we will be the first to start attacking him. There is no basis to give that kind of billion naira job to ex-militants,” he declared.
Dr Tijani further clarified that the ex-militant has been receiving this same amount of salary since 2011.
“it started sometime after 2011 when Jonathan won his election and since then the payment has been on.
“I was the pioneer chairman of NIMASA, and NIMASA is the one funding the contract given to Tompolo. This is a guy that is collecting about N1.5bn every month and yet our Armed Forces are not well funded. So, we call on the president to discard such contract.”
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