…Stakeholders, Lawmakers Warn Against Splitting Security Contract
On a stage for celebrating music and culture, the Niger Delta received special recognition on Saturday when High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, was conferred with the “Guardian of the Nation” award at the 2026 African Muzik Magazine Awards (AFRIMMA) in Dallas, Texas.
Announcing the award, the organisers said Tompolo was recognised for Tantita’s contribution to the protection of Nigeria’s critical national assets. AFRIMMA also credited Tompolo for contributing to peace-building, job creation and community development across the Niger Delta.
The Guardian of the Nation award is an honorary distinction, but the organisers have used it in previous editions to recognise public figures outside the entertainment sector. This year, they chose to honour a man whose company has sustained efforts to secure the nation’s oil assets in the Niger Delta creeks.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) engaged Tantita in August 2022 through a pipeline surveillance contract worth N48bn a year. Under the arrangement, Tantita’s personnel monitor export pipelines, trace illegal connections and identify crude-theft points, and report suspected illegal refining activity to security agencies for enforcement.
Tompolo founded Tantita out of the belief that the best people to secure the creeks are those who already know them. These include fishermen, boat operators and former militants who understand the terrain better than an outside contractor.
Tantita employs about 136,000 people directly in pipeline-related work, with indirect employment extending to more than 300,000 more. It has also tried a less conventional approach to the theft problem. In partnership with the Stakeholders Development Network and Ecosus Pro Nigeria Limited, it launched the Tantita Sustainable Rice Farming Initiative, aimed at moving communities once involved in illegal oil activity into large-scale rice farming instead.
Nigeria’s oil output has climbed since the contract began.
Nigeria had lost 36.69 million barrels of crude to theft and sabotage in 2022, according to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. But by 2023, that figure had fallen by 79 to 7.68 million barrels.
Data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) put crude and condensate production at 1,677,777 barrels per day in August 2026, with crude alone at 1,500,190 barrels per day, which is enough to meet the country’s OPEC quota of 1.5 million barrels daily for a fourth straight month.
Oil accounts for more than 75 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings, and the Federal Government has tied part of its target of a $1tn economy by 2030 to stability in the sector.
Amid calls to split its contract among multiple firms, traditional rulers and other stakeholders in the region have warned that fragmentation could weaken coordination.
The stakeholders urged the Federal Government to resist calls to halt or break up Tantita’s pipeline surveillance contract.
Former House of Representatives member Oghene Egoh said the indigenous security companies involved in pipeline surveillance had improved security around oil infrastructure and helped increase production by curtailing pipeline vandalism, illegal bunkering and crude theft. He urged the Federal Government to sustain the arrangement rather than revoke it.
In March, Dr Blessing Agbomhere, a legal practitioner and security expert, described the pipeline surveillance framework coordinated by Tantita and other indigenous firms as a “strategic national instrument” with implications for Nigeria’s economic stability and security. He argued that dismantling the structure at a time when crude production was recovering could jeopardise gains made in reducing oil theft and restoring output.
Similar concerns have been expressed in the National Assembly. More than 300 federal lawmakers endorsed the continued engagement of Tantita in April after reviewing petitions against the company. The lawmakers cited data showing higher crude production and reduced pipeline vandalism and warned that breaking up the existing arrangement could undermine those gains.
Deputy Spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, similarly cautioned against splitting the surveillance arrangement among multiple operators. He argued that pipeline protection is a sensitive security function requiring coordination and discipline, and that fragmenting responsibilities could create inefficiencies and weaken the system.
Communities close to the pipelines have similarly expressed the same concern. At a joint retreat involving House committees, Niger Delta host-community leaders and representatives of oil-bearing local governments rejected calls to decentralise the Tantita contract, arguing that the Petroleum Industry Act already provides a framework for community participation through the Host Communities Development Trust.
The Ovie of Great Idjerhe Kingdom, King Monday Obukohwo Whiskey, said Tantita’s role had brought noticeable improvements and argued that criticism of the company should not become an excuse for weakening the security arrangement. He specifically attributed some of the attacks on Tantita to its refusal to compromise professional standards in securing sensitive oil assets.
Felix Onoriode, a surveillance worker from an Isoko community in Delta State, offered a community-level explanation for retaining the contract. He said the operation had taken youths who previously engaged in crime off the streets by giving them regular employment while they participated in protecting oil infrastructure. He also argued that a single operational structure provided clearer responsibility and reduced bureaucratic delays, warning that decentralisation could create confusion.
A group of Niger Delta stakeholders believe that restructuring the contract should be approached cautiously because the existing system had helped stabilise the oil-producing areas.
Ekpemupolo was born on April 12, 1971, in Okerenkoko community, Gbaramatu Kingdom, in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State. His emergence as a Niger Delta leader dates back to 1996, when he sold personal property, including a car, three houses and speedboats, to fund resistance against the relocation of the Warri South-West council headquarters from Ogbe-Ijoh to Ogidigben under the military government of General Sani Abacha.
During the Niger Delta struggle for resource control, Ekpemupolo founded the now-defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). In 2009, he accepted the Federal Government’s amnesty programme under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and moved from armed agitation into dialogue and peacebuilding.
Meanwhile, Tompolo’s recognition in Dallas comes after several other honours for his contributions to the Niger Delta and peacebuilding in the region. Nigeria Maritime University, Okerenkoko, awarded Ekpemupolo an honorary doctorate in 2023 for his contribution to the institution and peacebuilding in the region. In March 2024, the Nigeria Union of Journalists gave him its first-ever Internal Security Meritorious Award. He received The Sun Newspaper’s Courage in Leadership Award that year, and in September 2024, the Ijaw People’s Association of Great Britain and Ireland gave him the lifetime “Izon-Ebi Dou Keme” title. LEADERSHIP newspaper named him its Social Impact Person of the Year for 2025.
Some of the recognition and awards have been attributed to activities of the Tompolo Foundation, through which he has funded scholarships for students who could not afford tertiary education, renovated the only hospital in Okerenkoko in 2012, and donated over N150m worth of relief items to flood victims across Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states. In August, youth groups in Bayelsa State publicly commended Tompolo and Tantita’s management for programmes they said had helped reduce cult-related activity and illegal bunkering among young people in the state.
Commander Ebimo Goodluck, who leads the Men on Ground Youth group in Bayelsa, said such interventions had made “a meaningful difference in the lives of ordinary people when they are sustained and properly expanded”.
