The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said it has no knowledge of the alleged detention of the Executive Director, Operations and Technical of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, Warredi Enisuoh.
The security company which belongs to a former commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, recently got awarded a pipeline surveillance contract worth over N40bn from the Federal Government.
Enisuoh was said to have been arrested on Thursday after he honoured the invitation of the EFCC and had since been detained by the anti-graft agency.
Tompolo raised the alarm in a Saturday statement signed by a member of the company’s communications department, Mr Olufemi Agha, a copy of which was sent to Sunday PUNCH.
The company alleged Enisuoh played a vital role in the N48bn pipeline surveillance contract which was recently awarded to Tompolo by the Federal Government in September 2022, amid counter-reactions by many Nigerians.
Tantita has so far uncovered over 58 illegal tapping points used by crude oil thieves in Delta and Bayelsa States.
The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, stated that Nigeria lost between 700,000 to 900,000 barrels of oil per day to crude oil theft, leading to about 29 to 35 per cent loss in oil revenue in the first quarter of 2022.
With Enisuoh’s arrest, Tantita alleged that the operations at the surveillance sites had been ‘endangered by the EFCC’.
Agha also alleged that “some powerful forces in the country are hiding behind operatives of the EFCC to use the commission to scuttle the intensified action against the theft of Nigeria’s oil resources in the country”.
He stressed that Enisuoh’s arrest came in the “middle of an ongoing operation to unravel one of the biggest oil stealing cartels in the country”.
Agha further stated that the detained director has been ‘pressurised’ by the EFCC to disclose his “intelligence asset”.
“Tantita has been in the news for the amazing progress being made in returning Nigeria to its pride of place as the leading oil producer in Africa. However, as we speak, efforts are being made to strangulate Tantita operations.
“On January 19, 2023, Tantita’s Executive Director, Operations and Technical, Capt. Warredi Enisuoh, was invited by the EFCC and detained. He has been in EFCC custody since.
“All efforts to ensure his release have proved abortive, as the commission has insisted that unless he provided a list of names who were his intelligence sources he would not be released.
“The EFCC’s invitation came right in the middle of an ongoing operation to unravel one of the biggest oil stealing cartels in this country,” the statement read in part,” it added.
The company, however, explained that Enisuoh had four cases with the anti-graft commission of which they claimed three had been won.
In September, one month after Tantita began operations, Agha claimed that the EFCC invited Enisuoh to enquire how he gained access to his bank accounts.
The statement further alleged that the EFCC was giving a condition to Enisuoh to provide the names of those who received money from the account, which he did not, as the persons concerned were “intelligence assets who provided valuable intelligence and need to be protected”.
“However, as the war against oil thieves firmed up, many of them have continued to threaten that those trying to stop their nefarious business would pay dearly for it,” the statement added.
Reacting to the allegations by Tompolo, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwajaren, when contacted by one of our correspondents, said he was not aware of the arrest.
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I’m unaware of such,” he said.