Ex militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, and security officials have discovered 42 more perforations on the nation’s oil pipelines.
The tapping by crude oil bunkerers seeking to divert the nation’s crude oil are uncovered in two states of Delta and Bayelsa
This brings the total tappings to 58.
The breakthrough came as bunkerers, angry with the leader of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, for exposing their unlawful business, in the past few weeks, have reportedly sent threat messages to him and operatives of his security firm, Tantita Security Services Limited, TSSL.
TSSL, last Thursday, seized a vessel suspected to belong to an oil syndicate, which came to load crude oil from an undisclosed location in Delta State.
However, Tompolo, who spoke to reporters, yesterday, at Oporoza, the traditional headquarters of Gbaramatu kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, dismissed the threat by the oil bunkerers.
At the time the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, visited Delta State, last Friday, Tantita reported the discovery of 16 tapping points on the trans-Forcados pipeline, which NNPCL had clamped.
Tompolo said: “As of today (Sunday), we have discovered over 58 tapping points that oil bunkerers have used in stealing crude oil from the nation’s pipelines in Delta and Bayelsa states.”
“In Delta, three major crude pipelines, including the trans-Escravos and Trans- Ramos lines have been tapped by oil bunkerers.
“The tapping points that were traced on Friday were with the help of the security agencies, which was why inside the rain and everything, we could trace the lines.
“We are doing the work together with the security agents; we are only providing intelligence for the security to assist to do the work.
“Therefore, everybody, NNPCL, and security agencies are working together in a very good spirit .
“The military has helped us to discover and stop the people from doing illegal activities, so we are going to work together and we do not want to go into details. The stealing had been going on for over eight to nine years,” he said.