Release our operatives in your custody, TSL tells the Nigerian Navy
By Linus Aleke
Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited has demanded the immediate release of its operatives arrested by personnel of the Nigerian Navy, at the Lekki area of Lagos, on August 29, 2023, while carrying out their legitimate duties.
The firm, in a statement on Saturday, also explained that its operatives who were on the trail of suspected oil thieves were instead arrested and detained for carrying out their lawful duty.
The statement reads in part, “On 31st of August 2023 the world woke up to a news story credited to the Commander, NNS BEECROFT of the Nigeria Navy, Commodore Kolawole Olumide Oguntuga, that the Nigerian Navy arrested four Tantita personnel for alleged crude oil theft. It would have been comedy if it was not tragedy. The Navy is a constitutional institution mandated to keep Nigeria’s seaward
borders safe from invasion and criminality and free for economic activities. Tanita respects the institution and its constitutional mandate. And it was out of that respect that a couple of weeks ago when there was a face-off between the service and Tantita over the MT Praisel, our organisation preferred to leave the Nigerian Navy to have the last word on the issue.
“It was our belief at the time that the matter was a misunderstanding that could have been better handled for the good of the nation and the common objective of Tantita and the Navy – the prevention of economic sabotage by oil thieves plying their nefarious trade on our nation’s waterways. However, the present incident, coming barely three weeks later, does not seem to support that notion. What seems to be playing is a poorly written tragedy. The Nigerian Navy’s story is that in the early hours of August 29 2023, there was an attempt by Tantita operatives to steal crude, which they foiled. They claim to have been responding to distress calls from youths in the Itolou Community in the Lekki axis of Lagos, and “reviewing the information, Naval patrol teams immediately launched a response operation Upon arrival at the scene, the Naval team met five individuals dressed in black polo shirts with TANITA inscribed on the back, trying to recover a dismantled outboard engine from a local. The team recovered the engine and apprehended the five Tantita employees. ”
The firm further noted that the continued detention by the Nigerian Navy of these five brave, selfless Nigerians who risked their lives on the high seas to protect our commonwealth is a disservice to our nation.
The Nigerian Navy, it said, had claimed that the Tantita patrol team was arrested following the realisation that the “four individuals are part of a movement of a large wooden boat laden with 11 x 1000L Geepee tanks with product suspected to be stolen crude oil.”
TSL, which has been working to curb the large-scale theft of crude oil in the country, explained that its eight-man patrol team operating in Ondo State received credible intelligence on Monday that a motorised wooden boat was illegally loading crude oil from an Offshore Oil Well Jacket operated by Cavendish Nigeria Limited, where the MT TURA II was caught stealing crude oil a few months ago.
An advance team, it said, was dispatched to find the wooden boat while a backup team of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps was assembled to follow through on the lead.
TSL further said that the advance team, with the help of local fishermen, was able to determine that the motorised wooden boat was heading in the direction of Lagos and gave hot pursuit.
“Upon noticing the approaching Tantita teams, the crew of the motorised wooden boat abandoned the wooden boat for their speed boat. One team of Tantita and NSCDC personnel boarded the wooden boat to secure the evidence while another team gave hot pursuit.
There is video evidence of the Tantita team together with NSCDC personnel. There is also evidence of the Tantita and GSA team giving chase to the crew of the boat,” the statement concluded.
