The Chairman, Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council, and Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom, King Bubaraye Dakolo, Agada IV, on Tuesday said it is an insult for the Federal Government to neglect the official security agencies and hire private security outfits to secure oil installations and apprehend oil thieves.
The monarch who authored a book ‘The Riddle of the Oil Thief’ was reacting to the contract awarded by the Federal Government to Tantita Security Services Limited, the pipeline surveillance security outfit owned by the former militant leader, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo a.k.a. Tompolo.

Speaking on Arise TV, he said hiring the likes of Tompolo to secure oil installations while the Navy and other security agencies are neglected is an aberration which shows how low Nigeria has become.
Dakolo who said oil thieves can end in two weeks if the President is serious about it also said Nigerian security agencies can end oil theft and secure our installations if the president gives them the marching order to do so.
To do this, the security agencies should be trained and well funded and equipped to carry out their task.
He said “For me, it underscores how low the Nigerian state has descended where it seems to have lost faith in our law enforcements to the level where you want private, perhaps not so well trained hands to help to do the job. It is so because our economy is in tatters. There is no job for people so everyone wants to look at how to make a living out of everything and you want to engage them in that manner”.
“First and foremost, if the government of Nigeria were able to get the economy of Nigeria working to the point where it was a dollar to a naira, I can tell you that people will not want to go and vandalise oil installations. If the Nigerian economy becomes robust, I can tell you that most people will not want to get interested in what they are being contracted to do today”.
“What the Nigerian state ought to do is to equip the Navy, give them more funds, equip law enforcements and give them more trainings to be professional. Bringing in hands that are not trained to come and do a job meant for the Navy is an insult to the Nigerian state and insult to the Navy”.
“I think Nigerian state will benefit more if they pump in more resources to the Navy and give them the marching order to deal with the oil thieves. Right now, what we are seeing is an aberration that shouldn’t be seen or told. The private contractors should have been faceless. The best they could have done is to give intelligence to the official law enforcements like the Navy or JTF”.