NNPC: 800,000-Litre Capacity Vessel with Stolen Crude Impounded Enroute Cameroon

•Fadahunsi: Customs can generate N6tn annually if Military, security agencies curb smuggling 

•Alleges IOCs, powerful Nigerians behind oil theft

Emmanuel Addeh, Sunday Aborisade in Abuja and Sylvester Idowu in Warri

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) yesterday announced that following the receipt of credible intelligence, a private security contractor engaged by the firm, Messrs. Tantita Security Services, has intercepted a suspicious vessel with a cargo of crude oil on board.

Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, is owned by former Militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo.

The vessel, MT Tura II (IMO number: 6620462), owned by a Nigerian registered company, Holab Maritime Services Limited with registration number RC813311, it said, was heading to Cameroun with the cargo on board.

A statement by the national oil company signed by the spokesman of the NNPC, Garba Muhammad, noted that the vessel was apprehended at an offshore location at latitude 5.8197194477543235° and longitude 4.789002723991871°, with the captain and crew members on board.

According to the NNPC, preliminary investigations revealed that the crude oil cargo onboard was illegally sourced from a well jacket offshore Ondo State, Nigeria.

It added that there was no valid documentation for the vessel or the crude oil cargo onboard at the time of the arrest.

Further investigation into the activities of the vessel at the NNPC Limited command and control centre, Muhammad said, also revealed that the vessel had been operating in stealth mode for the last 12 years.

“The last reported location of the Vessel was Tin Can Port in July 2011,” he stated.

Details of the arrest and the outcomes of the investigations were escalated to the appropriate government authorities, upon which it was concluded to destroy the vessel to serve as a strong warning and deterrent to all those participating in such illegal activities to cease and desist, the NNPC said.

Destroying vessels involved in transporting stolen crude oil, it stressed, is of paramount importance as a strong deterrence.

“The illegal trade of stolen crude oil not only inflicts significant economic losses on Nigeria and legitimate stakeholders in the oil industry, but also perpetuates a cycle of corruption, environmental devastation, and social instability.

“NNPC Ltd. assures Nigerians that we will sustain the momentum in the war against crude oil theft until it is brought to a halt,” the national oil company said.

THISDAY gathered that the vessel had once been arrested with the contents delivered to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) while the vessel was handed over to the security agencies but allegedly escaped miraculously.

Briefing Journalists during an inspection of the vessel, anchored at Oporoza in Gbaramatu kingdom in Warri South West Local government area of Delta State yesterday, the Executive Director, Technical and Operations of Tantita Security Services, Captain Warredi Enisuoh said the vessel was arrested with 13 crew members during a sting operation in Ondo State.

He said the firm had deployed both human and technical intelligence in monitoring the movements of the vessel until it was finally caught last weekend.

Enisuoh disclosed that the original name of the vessel was Ali-Riza-Bey but was altered to MT Tura 11 to evade the eagle eyes is security agencies and, “unknown to the perpetrators, we have been monitoring the movements of the vessel until we finally apprehend her off the coast in Ondo State.”

He confirmed that the vessel had once been arrested for same crude theft but disappeared in mysterious circumstances and “we are here with the same vessel committing the same atrocity.”

Enisuoh commended the security agencies for their cooperation in the task to rid the maritime domain free of criminal activities recalling that the arrested vessel was constructed in 1965.

Commander, Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Delta Safe (OPDS) Rear Admiral Olusegun Ferreira, who led other service chiefs to the scene, said investigation is ongoing to unravel the perpetrators of the act.

Meanwhile, a retired deputy comptroller general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Senator Francis Fadahunsi, has said the NCS could generate N6 trillion annual revenue for the country.

To achieve this, he advised President Bola Tinubu to mandate the military and security agencies in the country to put an end to the massive smuggling currently going on in the country.

Fadahunsi, who is representing the Osun East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, stated this while speaking with journalists yesterday in Abuja.

The vice-chairman,. Senate Committee on Customs and Excise in the 9th Senate, also alleged that some international oil companies and highly influential Nigerians were actively involved in massive crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region.

He therefore said unless the president gives necessary directive to relevant security and military agencies, the country would continue to experience revenue leakages.

He said, “Some international oil companies and highly influential Nigerians are behind the crude oil theft in Nigeria. It did not start today; the practice has been on for a long time.

“Unfortunately the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is doing nothing spectacular to stop the theft.

“Each of the affected IOCs have separate channels with which they are siphoning crude to waiting vessels on the high seas with the active connivance of the military and security operatives saddled with the responsibilities of protecting the nation’s oil assets.

“If the practice continues Nigeria will continue to experience shortage in its daily oil production quota.

“Some highly influential Nigerians in and outside government are also smuggling crude with smaller vessels through Benin Republic enroute Lagos.

“Many powerful Nigerians in and outside the government also operate big departmental stores selling foreign products and they failed to pay duties on their goods.

 “If President Bola Tinubu could focus special attention on Customs, the country would generate enough revenue for the nation.

“The President needs the support of competent, experienced and professionals in both in the executive and the legislature to stop the massive revenue leakages the country is currently experiencing.”

He disagreed with the proposed plan to make the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the main revenue collector for the NCS and the Nigeria Ports Authority.

“The president should give customs, a target of N6 trillion per annum. The service has highly trained personnel that could meet the target. Customs alone can generate the revenues the country needs to service its debts,” he added.