Some ex-warlords in the Rivers and Bayelsa State axis met in Okrika area of Rivers State to press for a share of the pipeline surveillance contract since granted to Tantita Security Services Limited.
The contract has recently been renewed but some groups want a slice of the $50 million per month action.
Many groups in the oil region think the contract should have been split in the states so that most ex-militants would be involved. Instead, the job has remained with Tantita owned by a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Chief Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo.
It was learnt that Chief Asari Dokubo, a former warlord who is also into security services, has continued to raise squads to support and defend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Abuja. He was said to have led others to attend a meeting in Okochiri in Okrikia, Rivers State, to press for what they called decentralization. He was also said to have met with a king in Okochiri to help create a way forward.
Our source said the ex-agitators believe that the pipeline surveillance job was more successful when it was shared state by state. Each set of ex-militants protected the length in their state during the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration.
The source gave example of Rivers State where Ateke Tom, Asari, Egberi Papa, and Farah Dagogo allegedly worked in unity.
It was believed that the Okochiri meeting was to react to the renewal of the contract and how they could be part of it under decentralization or even now. They were said to have spoken vehemently against awarding it to one person.
From faraway Akwa-Ibom State, a stakeholder in the struggle, Ofon Ette (alias General), criticized the contractor for not carrying other fighters in other states along.
Ette said in the year under review, there have been complaints from critical stakeholders in the struggle from these states.
“While I commend the federal government who are now abreast with the fact that they lack the strength to manage the security of our pipelines, and consequently gave it to Tompolo, and while I congratulate Tompolo for winning the contract, I wish to state that he should know that he cannot do it alone. He must as a priority reach out to some of these leaders in each of the struggles across other states, instead of working with a few and applying the divide and rule tactics,” he said.
What seemed to be a twist in the push, however, occurred when key ex-fighters were found to be absent at the Okochiri meeting. They were named as Farah Dagogo and Sobomabo Jackrich (Eberi Papa), said to be two critical stakeholders of the Niger Delta struggle in Rivers State. Their absence was said to have evoked suspicion that they may have joined Tantita (Tompolo), a prospect that may not augur well for the unity of front of the Rivers ‘Big Four’.
Others that, however, responded to the call to Okochiri were named as Bibopiri Ajube, Victor Ben Ebikabowei, etc. The Rivers leaders were said to have worked together in the past.
A source said the meeting was convened to strategize ways to oversee the pipeline surveillance contract with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
