Tantita Lawyer faults Southwest governors, Falana over ‘grouse’ about Tompolo’s pipeline security job

•Consultant backs CDS on burnt vessel

The lead legal consultant to Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited (TSSNL), the company that won the pipeline surveillance contract, Emmanuel Jakpa, has faulted some Southwest governors and activist-lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), for their perceived “grouse” about the pipelines surveillance contract awarded to the company.

TSSNL, owned by ex-warlord, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo), won the surveillance contract and uncovered some areas where the nation’s crude oil was being stolen in the Niger Delta creeks.

In a statement, Jakpa said the governors, who he did not name, as well as Falana, may be trying to discredit the “good work being done” by Tompolo’s private security company (PSC).

The lawyer faulted Falana for demanding the head of the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, for supporting the destruction of a crude oil bunkering vessel arrested last week by TSSNL agents.

The statement said: “Unfortunately, it is no longer clear who the learned silk is attacking: Tantita for accepting a government contract, the Federal Government of Nigeria for issuing such a contract to stop crude stealing, or the CDS for justifying the burning of a ship (used for committing theft).

Read Also: PHOTOS: NNPC Visits Another Illegal Pipeline Site discovered by Tompolo’s men

“It is, however, necessary to separate all these issues because it would seem that these attacks have one common purpose and that is to dislodge or to disparage the good work being done by a private security company (PSCs).

“Mr. Falana is not the first to raise hackles over this issue. Several governors from the Southwest of Nigeria have complained about this.

“No one knows what their real grouse is. But perhaps, it will be better for them to state what offends their sensibilities, rather than raise non-issues of legality.”

“The same pipeline surveillance contract has been handed in the past to other private contractors, including one OMS, without a whimper of complaint by anybody.”

Stressing that Tantita had shown “competence and effectiveness,” Jakpa wondered who might be “uncomfortable with Tantita delivering on its mandate,” adding that the “naysayers have been deprived of the opportunity to complain that he (Tompolo) is incompetent”.

Jakpa urged Nigerians to support the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in the bid to stop oil theft and illegal bunkering.

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