…Says Navy arresting own personnel
The management of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, a Federal Government-contracted oil pipeline surveillance firm, has accused the Nigerian Navy of shielding some suspected oil thieves being pursued by its personnel.
It alleged that the Navy arrested four of its personnel chasing the suspects on the high seas towards a naval base.
This was contained in a statement issued by Tantita management and made available to journalists in Warri, Delta State on Saturday on the heels of the purported arrest of four surveillance personnel of the firm by the Navy earlier in the week.
Recall that the Nigerian Navy had on August 31, 2023, in a press release credited to the Commander, NNS BEECROFT, Commodore Kolawole Olumide Oguntuga, stated that the Navy arrested four Tantita personnel for alleged crude oil theft.
However, the Tantita management, while declaring the Nigerian Navy’s statement as “a tragicomedy of errors”, insisted that it was nothing but a smear campaign.
The statement read in part: “The Navy has been sharing pictures on social media of the Tantita staff in their custody in various shades of undress but kept silent about the names of the boat crew whom they were chasing. In short, where is the crew that the Tantita personnel chased into Ibeju Lekki?”, Tantita queried.
Tantita maintained that the arrest for four days and parade of its staff by the Nigerian Navy as common criminals should “be deprecated by all right thinking members of society, at a time when our nation is in dire straits with the unparalleled loss of revenue from a mono-cultural export-based economy”.
“These family men put their lives at risk for the good of the nation and are now being made to suffer ridicule for doing the right thing. It serves to demoralise good men everywhere who have sought and are seeking to do something to better our nation”, the firm stated.
