Group appeals to Tinubu to award surveillance contract in Warri Area to Itsekiri contractors

….Accuses Tompolo of using Tantita Security Services to annex Itsekiri communities
….Berates Awani’s group for working against Itsekiri people

By Chris Ochayi

A prominent pressure group, Warri Indigenous People’s Movement, WIPM, has lashed out at some Itsekiri individuals, supporting Mr. Oweizide Thomas Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo) and his Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited to orchestrate numerous atrocities against their own Itsekiri people under the guise of surveillance.

The group lambasted Esimaje Awani and the so-called Forum of Itsekiri Cluster Coordinators of Tantita Security Services, to discredit its well-received Abuja protest, a move it said failed woefully

The WIPM signed by Chairman, Hon. Kingsley Tenumah and General Secretary, Comr. Monoyo Edon, respectively, which copies were made available to journalists in Abuja, accused Tompolo and his Tantita Security Services of deploying different strategies to annexing Itsekiri communities and chasing away their inhabitants.

It particularly noted that, In a Gestapo style, Men of his Tantita stormed Usor and Tisun communities in Warri North, illegally arrested defenseless Itsekiris, whisked them to Oporaza to a private cell where they were tortured and starved. It took the intervention of notable Itsekiris to rescue those innocent Itsekiris from Tompolo’s Holding Cell.”

The group therefore, appealed to the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to give the surveillance contract in the Warri Area to competent Itsekiri surveillance and security contractors.

The statement reads, “The leadership of the Warri Indigenous People’s Movement (WIPM) has watched with pity and disdain as Mr. Oweizide Thomas Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo) pulls his usual diversionary tactics from his bag of tricks in a failed attempt to discredit a well-coordinated protest and petition by this Movement against the excesses of his company, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited in the Warri Area of Delta State on the 18th of June, 2025 in Abuja.

“WIPM and indeed all Itsekiris (including the ones commissioned by Tompolo to respond to us) have never been against Tompolo and his surveillance contract. In fact, like every company operating in Nigeria, Itsekiri like other Nigerians are working in his Tantita company.

“At the conceptualization of the contract around the Warri region, some notable Itsekiris spoke in favour of Tompolo. So calling out Tompolo and his company for derailing from the scope of the contract is not a witch-hunt. It is nothing but sheer blackmail for the sympathizers of Tompolo and his Tantita to think we are opposing Tompolo because of his Ijaw ancestry.

“If anything, the Itsekiri ethnic nationality has been very magnanimous to the ex-militant. His Gbaramatu Kingdom sits between Omadino and Ugborodo land.

“Knowing Esimaje Awani and the so-called Forum of Itsekiri cluster Coordinators of Tantita Security Services for their stomach-first ideology, we would not have bothered to dignify them with a response because they have already failed to discredit our well-received Abuja protest but we have become so constrained to further expose them to their Itsekiri people as cheap sellouts and puppets in the hands of Tompolo.

“It is both shameless and hypocritical for them to leap in defense of Tantita’s continued operation in our Area despite the numerous atrocities Tompolo and his security company have orchestrated against their own Itsekiri people under the guise of surveillance simply because they are observing table manners.

“One simple poser to these sellouts defending their stomachs over their ethnic plights is; if the role is reversed with the kinsmen of your paymaster, will they give up their identities and consciences in exchange for a few dollars just as you have done? We are not surprised because it is only those whom Tompolo’s dollars have become a noose on their necks that will offer themselves as willing diversionary tools for their paymasters. Esimaje Awani and his shameless gang should forever bury their heads in shame.

“Itsekiri, Isoko, and even some of Tompolo’s Ijaw kinsmen (through various press conferences and protests) have exposed the radical land annexation agenda behind the Tantita Surveillance contract, particularly in the Warri Area. This revelation was stated in our petition to the National Security Adviser, the Presidency and several protests on national television.

“In the course of executing the contract, Tompolo and his Tantita Security Services have deployed different strategies to annexing Itsekiri communities and chasing away their inhabitants. In a Gestapo style, Men of his Tantita stormed Usor and Tisun communities in Warri North, illegally arrested defenseless Itsekiris, whisked them to Oporaza to a private cell where they were tortured and starved. It took the intervention of notable Itsekiris to rescue those innocent Itsekiris from Tompolo’s Holding Cell.

“Since December 2024, in the guise of destroying illegal bunkering sites, Omadino settlements such as Ajelebe and Akpata have come under persistent attack by men of Tantita Security Services and Gbaramatu Ijaws who lay claim to those places after such operations.

“As we speak, Tompolo and Tantita have chased away Itsekiris from Kantu and Ijaghala communities who refused to denounce their Itsekiri ancestry and adopt his Gbaramatu Ijaw identity while claiming to have annexed those Itsekiri communities merely via press conferences.

“Most recently, men of Tantita Security Services acting on the orders of Tompolo arrested workers of Globacom who went to erect a telecom mast in Kantu community.

“This same scenario played out in the INEC Ward Delineation exercise where, in convenience with corrupt officials of the National Boundary Adjustment Commission, coordinates of communities in Ondo and Bayelsa states, Udu and Warri South-West Local Government Areas were stolen and imported to Warri North and Warri South LGAs to boost their population.

“These coordinates were then given to officials of INEC to input for their areas, thereby renaming Itsekiri communities to fictitious Ijaw names and substituting Itsekiri communities within 500m buffer zone of oil installations with Ijaws’. This has been sufficiently exposed to the general public.

“INEC who should ordinarily concern themselves with the voters register for those areas as the most important guideline for ward delineation abandoned their job and usurped the functions of the National Population Commission and National Boundary Commission in conscience with Tompolo under the cover of pipeline surveillance contract to annex Itsekiri communities to Gbaramatu.

“Section 257 of the PIA placed the burden of protecting oil infrastructure on the host communities particularly against armed cartels and potential collusion with industry and security personnel.

“The law stipulates that if a host community experiences damage to petroleum facilities due to vandalism, sabotage, or civil unrest, the community may forfeit a portion of its entitlement (e.g., from the Host Community Development Trust) to cover the cost of repairs.

“This very clause is why Itsekiri as an ethnic group is appealing to the President Tinubu-led Federal Government to give the surveillance contract in the Warri Area to competent Itsekiri surveillance and security contractors. Tompolo and the annexation machination of his Tantita company have demonstrated why this portion of the law is sacrosanct.

“This is not about the award of contract because there are contractors from other ethnic groups operating in Itsekiriland. Never has the activities of these other contractors been met with this level of stiff resistance from the Itsekiri ethnic nationality.

”It is about the annexation of the political economy of Warri. Renewing the contract in our area to Tompolo, a sworn enemy of the Itsekiri people is an infringement on Section 257 of the PIA. He would cause further trouble against the Itsekiri people. But it is our desire to resist such tendencies at all cost.

“If not for greed and dead conscience, why would these shameless Itsekiris who kept mum during the attempted annexation of Kantu and Ijaghala communities and several other atrocities against their own Itsekiri people by Tompolo and his Tantita suddenly rare their ugly heads when we call for transparency and accountability in the allotment and execution of pipeline surveillance contract in the Warri area?

“They have by their failed counter responses exposed themselves to Itsekiri and the world as shameless hustlers who do not care about the existence of Itsekiri and their own ethnic identities provided they secure their stomachs as labour contractors -what a pathetic and pitiable lot.”