Re: Pipeline Surveillance: Chief of Naval Staff not allowing private security outfits to do their jobs – Think-Tank 

Our attention has been drawn to a social media report (on operanews online, to be specific) with the above headline, wherein a group describing itself as ‘Ohaneze(sic) Think-Tank’, “lambasted” the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla for allegedly not allowing the private pipeline security outfits contracted by the federal government to do their job.

The ‘lambasting’ was said to have been done by the group in an open letter it sent to the CNS and which was signed by Dr. Azubuike Ajuluchukwu and Dr. Cletus Akunyili, National Coordinator and Deputy National Coordinator  “respectively and made available to journalists.”

In the letter, ‘Ohaneze(sic) Think-Tank’ was said to have “told the CNS to allow the three private surveillance contractors to function in the nation’s waterways”, decrying “Naval sabotage of their operations in the waterways.”

According to the report, the three private surveillance contractors are 1) Tantita Security Services Limited ( TSSL) 2) Pipelines Infrastructures Nigeria Limited (PINL) and 3) Inter – Atlas Synergy, with the latter said to be the supervisor of the first two.

Claimed ‘Ohaneze(sic) Think-Tank’: “Rather than support the efforts of the three security companies contracted by the federal government to keep surveillance over oil facilities, the Navy is…hell bent in (sic) creating impediment in their paths, just to tarnish their reputation and have their contracts revoked.”

‘Ohaneze(sic) Think-Tank further lamented that contrary to expectations that the “Chief of Naval Staff will bring discipline, professionalism, competence and seriousness to bear on the job,” their hope was dashed “as the expected change has continued to be a mirage.”

While pouring encomiums on “the Nigerian Army, the Air Force and other security agencies (who) have abided with the directive to work alongside the private security firms,” the ‘Ohaneze(sic) Think Tank’ regretted that the Navy, on the other hand, “has remained adamant,” agonizing that “the same old story of wanton irresponsibility and lack of dedication to duty by men of the Navy still subsists.”

“The Navy you lead today carries the same old burden, which held down the nation,” the ‘Onaneze(sic) Think Tank’ surmised.

We at The Equity Roundtable (TERT) are satisfied that the Navy has appropriately responded to what was clearly delivered as an unwarranted diatribe against the person of the CNS, Vice Admiral Ikechukwu Ogalla, and the Nigerian Navy as a whole.

It is unlikely that the ‘Ohaneze(sic) Think Tank’ would have complained if the Navy under Admiral Ogalla had not dared to carry out its responsibilities in the nation’s maritime domain, over which it has a preeminent authority, without fear or favour.

In a statement issued by Rear Admiral AO AYO-VAUGHAN, its Director of Information, the Navy described the claims credited to the ‘Ohaneze(sic) Think Tank’ as malicious and an attempt by “some desperate individuals/organizations” to frustrate NN’s current effort at “eradicating the menace of crude oil theft and other forms of illegalities in the nation’s maritime domain”…through sponsorship of “fraudulent and unsubstantiated publications in some mainstream media and online news platforms” against the Navy.

Ayo-Vaughan explained that contrary to allegations in some quarters, the Navy “has always worked harmoniously with all maritime stakeholders nationally, regionally and internationally.”

“The coming onboard of private maritime stakeholders for the protection of critical onshore economic assets in the sole interest of the nation’s economy is a known development, provided (that) professionalism and Standard Operating Procedures are upheld strictly. Hence, it is complete fallacy to allege to the contrary via sponsored ill-conceived and uncorroborated publications,” the NN warned in the statement by Vaughan.

In light of the foregoing, we in The Equity Round Table (TERT) would like to interrogate the claim by ‘Ohaneze(sic) Think-Tank’ as follows:

1. If this ‘Ohaneze(sic) Think-Tank’ is supposed to be an affiliate of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, then it is completely fictitious because our search and inquiries produced no such result as’ Ohaneze(sic) Think-Tank’. It is fake, obviously contrived by its creators for whatever the sinister purpose and mischief they set out to achieve with it. The names purported as the group’s national coordinator and deputy national coordinator are also fake.
2. From what we know and have confirmed, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has only one known affiliate group, the Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC). The Ime Obi Ohanaeze that many Nigerians know about is not an affiliate group but a ruling organ of the apex Igbo sociocultural and sociopolitical group. So, who created ‘Ohaneze(sic) Think Tank’ and why?
3. From our searches, we can confirm the following profiles of the three companies on whose behalf the ‘Ohaneze(sic) Think-Tank’ “lambasted” the CNS: a) Tanita Security Services Nigeria Limited: Registered on November 13, 2019, the company which has its headquarters at No1 Refivie Close, DDPA Ugborikoko, Effurun, Warri, Delta State, is owned 100 per cent by non-Igbo Niger Deltans. b) Pipelines Infrastructures Nigeria Limited (PINL) with its head office at No 36, Birao Street, Wuse 2, Abuja, FCT is also owned 100 per cent by mainstream, creek, non-Igbo Niger Deltans and 3) Inter_Atlas Synergy with its head office at 10 Saka Tinubu Street, Lagos boasts directors all of whose names sound precisely Delta Central, Delta State.
4. While there is nothing wrong with one being nationalistic, even altruistically patriotic, in one’s disposition, we at The Equity Roundtable are really hard-put to understand why a so-called affiliate group of Ohanaeze Ndigbo would ‘lambast’ the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), an ethnic Igbo, even to the extent of accusing him of economic sabotage against the country, for the simple reason that his execution of the official duties constitutionally assigned to him as the chief superintendent of Nigeria’s maritime domain, seems not to brook interference by private, non-naval private surveillance contractors in the nation’s waterways.
5. If, according to the NN, it has always acknowledged the coming onboard of private maritime stakeholders for the protection of critical onshore economic assets in the sole interest of the nation’s economy as “a known development, provided (that) professionalism and Standard Operating Procedures are upheld strictly,” is it possible, then, that Tanita, PINL and Inter_Atlas Synergy have been found lacking in the adoption of Standard Operating Procedures in the discharge of their pipeline surveillance contract obligations, a reason they now appear to have been put on the spot by a new sheriff with new broom to more efficiently sweep out dirt?
6. It is instructive also, in view of the result of another search by TERT, that PINL had much earlier been accused of incompetence by a Niger Delta group known as National Awareness Forum (NAF) (which had called for revocation of PINL’s surveillance contract), and had to rise in its own defence against the ‘fictitious’ NAF, using another, probably ‘fictitious’, group called  Warri Urban Security Network (WUSN).
7. We are, therefore, at a loss to understand why the three pipeline security contractors had to frame Ohanaeze Ndigbo in their face-off with the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) over their obviously failing contracts, no thanks, it seems, to their incompetent handling of their briefs.

If their glaringly unscrupulous action was intended to cause friction between the CNS and Ohanaeze and, by so doing, give further, seemingly more evidential, expression to the perception in some quarters that the Igbo hate one another, we believe that this underhand, ethnic baiting of a ‘strategy’ was simply too cheap, embarrassingly too immature and delusionary to help the companies accomplish their devilish mission.

Isn’t it possible for other Nigerian nationalities to fight their own wars without always trying to rope in the Igbo?

We are firmly convinced that if Ohanaeze Ndigbo were to berate one of its own for any official misdemeanour that misrepresents the Igbo, it won’t be at the behest of  persons that could so unabashedly employ fraudulent means to defame an innocent person in order to win public sympathy for their obviously selfish agenda, which is to keep contracts they had hitherto not properly executed or even had no competence for.

Tanita, PINL and Inter_Atlas Synergy should seek more transparent ways of winning back the trust of their partners in the lucrative oil pipeline surveillance contracts, not look for someone to take a fall for their seeming incompetence.

Signed: Barr Charles Okwudili Ugwu (National Coordinator); Mr. Cosmas Odo, Director of Operaations and Felix Oguejiofor Abugu (Director of Publicity),

For: The EQUITY ROUNDTABLE (TERT)