NIMASA stops Tompolo’s $103m contract

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the stoppage of the US$103 million contract between exmilitant commander, Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo’s Global West Vessel Specialist Nigeria Limited and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency in 2011.

A highly placed source in NIMASA’s Finance Department told Sunday Telegraph that the agency had indeed stopped paying GWVSNL for the controversial US$103m contract. GWVSNL, believed to owned by Tompolo secured the contract in 2011 to provide patrol boats and communication equipment for NIMASA. It was to also maintain, bunker and crew the boats and would only be paid when surpasses its revenue target and reach a certain benchmark.

“We have not paid him since July and I’m not sure he will be paid again,” the source said. According to him, the agency stopped making payments to Global West after NIMASA’s Director-General, Patrick Akpobolokemi, was sacked by the Federal Government on July 16. He further disclosed that the agency was directed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transport, Mallam Mohammed Bashar, to discontinue payment to GWVSNL for the provision of platforms for security of Nigeria’s waterways.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, further said; “The company has submitted two invoices since the former DG was removed from office but NIMASA will not pay. Our current DG will not honour any such commitment.”

The source further hinted that NIMASA’s legal department was studying the contract between NIMASA and GWVSNL, with a view to fully revoking the controversial contract.The source alleged that GWVSNL was paid half of the $150m (N30 billion) collected from Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas.

He also alleged that the agency paid N13bn to a company believed to be owned by Tompolo. “This is what NIMASA has been turned into. Let us even assume that they were the ones that recovered the money; but where in the world do you pay a company half of the money it recovered?

We had such arrangements for the collection of NIMASA’s three per cent levy in the past and the company involved was paid five per cent of the money it recovers above a set benchmark,” the source, who is a senior employee in the agency, said. Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said he could not confirm the story as our enquiry was sent on a weekend.

“To be honest with you, I am not in a position to give you the information you want at this time. I wish it were a working day when I could call a DG or any official of the relevant agency to confirm it. I know that I have read something like that sometime ago, but I can’t confirm its authenticity. ,” Shehu said.

In June, pioneer Chairman of the Board of NIMASA, Alhaji Tijjani Ramalan, said GWVSNL was paid N1.5bn monthly by NIMASA to execute the contract. He, however, lamented that despite the huge payment, the country still lost over 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily to oil theft. The former NIMASA chairman called on President Buhari to cancel the contract.