Nigerian lawmakers reject move to break up Tompolo's Tantita pipeline contract

A joint committee of the Nigerian House of Representatives and a broad coalition of Niger Delta stakeholders have formally and emphatically rejected growing calls to break up the pipeline surveillance contract held by Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, the company led by former Niger Delta agitator High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, widely known as Tompolo.

The resolution emerged from a retreat held in Owerri, Imo State, where the House of Representatives Joint Committee on Host Communities and Public Petitions convened with Niger Delta stakeholders to deliberate on the future of the contract. The session passed formal resolutions backing a long-term renewal of the Tantita contract and dismissing every petition calling for its decentralisation.

The committee's resolution was unambiguous. "All calls for the 'decentralisation' of the said private pipeline surveillance contract are hereby dismissed in the strongest terms as baseless, anti-Niger Delta, and proceeding from a wilful conflation of two legally distinct matters; and all petitions and complaints before this Joint Committee in that regard are hereby formally dismissed," the resolution read.

Participants at the retreat also called on the Federal Government to confer high national honours on Tantita's leadership in recognition of what they described as outstanding contributions to national security and the protection of critical petroleum infrastructure. They urged the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to grant Tantita a fresh long-term contract extension and warned that attempts to fragment or disrupt the arrangement could undermine gains already made in oil production and Niger Delta stability.

The evidence for those gains is substantial. Nigeria's crude oil production has risen from below 1.2 million barrels per day before Tantita's engagement to more than 1.7 million barrels per day, according to figures cited at the retreat by Professor S.C. Dike, a professor of Energy and Comparative Environmental Law who delivered the keynote address. Thousands of illegal pipeline connection points and crude oil bunkering routes have been uncovered and dismantled since Tantita began operations, according to the same presentation.

Tantita was contracted by NNPCL to provide pipeline surveillance and protection across the Niger Delta's oil-producing communities. The contract has been a source of controversy since its award, with critics arguing that it concentrates too much oil infrastructure security responsibility in a single operator and that the arrangement requires greater oversight and community participation. Supporters, including the House committee and Niger Delta stakeholder groups, argue that the integrated model has worked precisely because of its unified command structure and Tompolo's personal authority in the region.

Tompolo himself has remained a polarising figure in Nigerian public life. He spent years on a wanted list before negotiating an amnesty arrangement and has positioned himself and Tantita as essential to the stability of the oil infrastructure that underpins the federal government's revenue base. The political sensitivity of the contract was underscored by warnings from stakeholders that continued public attacks on Tompolo and his team could affect stability in the Niger Delta and undermine the security gains.

President Bola Tinubu has already approved renewal of the contract, a decision the stakeholders praised at the retreat. The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has also ruled against attempts to stop the renewal through legal injunctions. A court refused an emergency stop order sought by groups opposed to the arrangement, a decision that separate civil society voices have described as a victory for national economic security.

The retreat also addressed a parallel legislative push, with stakeholders and lawmakers resolving to seek an amendment to the Petroleum Industry Act that would raise the host community fund contribution by oil companies from the current level to six percent of operating expenditure.