{"id":168614,"date":"2025-07-07T07:14:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T06:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/delta-community-leader-warns-urhobos-against-protests-over-tantita-pipeline-contract"},"modified":"2025-07-07T07:14:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T06:14:00","slug":"delta-community-leader-warns-urhobos-against-protests-over-tantita-pipeline-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/delta-community-leader-warns-urhobos-against-protests-over-tantita-pipeline-contract","title":{"rendered":"Delta community leader warns Urhobos against protests over Tantita pipeline contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Urhobo indigenes in Delta State have been cautioned to desist from protesting against the pipeline protection contract being executed by Tantita Security Services Limited and its chairman, Ijaw leader Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.<\/p>\n<p>The warning was issued by Chief Larry Adanike, a community leader in the oil-producing Ogulagha Kingdom of Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, in a statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Adanike noted that the same pipeline surveillance contract was previously handled for eight years by the late Capt. Hosa Okunbo, an Edo State indigene, across Urhobo territories without protest. He accused the Urhobos of opposing Tantita simply because the company is owned by an Ijaw man.<\/p>\n<p>According to Adanike, even during periods of rampant pipeline vandalism and the resulting environmental degradation in host communities, there were no protests from Urhobo groups.<\/p>\n<p>He described the ongoing protests as \u201csponsored,\u201d and pointed out that before Tantita\u2019s engagement, Nigeria\u2019s daily oil production had declined to 650,000 barrels per day due to widespread pipeline breaches and oil theft.<\/p>\n<p>Adanike warned that ethnic-driven opposition to Tantita\u2019s operations is detrimental to the long-standing inter-ethnic harmony in Delta State. He expressed concern that platforms belonging to some ethnic groups are instigating protests against the firm solely because of its Ijaw ownership.<\/p>\n<p>He further argued that following Capt. Hosa\u2019s death, the current Olu of Warri now oversees pipeline surveillance contracts covering territories in Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom states\u2014areas predominantly inhabited by Ijaws\u2014without resistance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday people are sponsoring Itsekiris to protest against the Ijaw man\u2019s company, asking for the withdrawal of Tantita security job which Tantita is executing very very competently\u2014such that we no longer have pipeline vandalisation and oil theft and our oil production has improved tremendously up to at least 1.8 million barrels per day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are seeking to deny Tantita access to Itsekiri communities. Now the Urhobo are saying the same thing. Greed and envy seem to forget reason. This will not help the cause of unity amongst the tribes in Delta State,\u201d Adanike stated.<\/p>\n<p>He listed major pipeline contracts handled by Urhobo and other non-Ijaw contractors in Ijaw communities over the years, including Chief Ubiebi in Forcados and Escravos, and companies like Eruben Ltd., SJ Jones, SAMOT Ltd., and Temile &amp; Sons.<\/p>\n<p>Adanike emphasised that no Ijaw community had ever protested or disrupted the operations of Urhobo or Isoko contractors, even when these firms dominated engineering and security contracts in Ijaw territories.<\/p>\n<p>The statement continued: \u201cWhen the security surveillance jobs were awarded by NAPIMS through settlors like SPDC decades ago, it was frontline Urhobo contractors like Chief Ubiebi from Ughelli axis that handled all major security and maintenance contracts for decades in Ijaw areas of Forcados (Ogulagha) and Escravos (Gbaramatu), Tunu, Beniseide (Ojobo), Egbema-Angalabiri (Bayelsa), etc.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome other Urhobo and Isoko contractors who held sway then in major engineering and EPIC construction contracts were Eruben Ltd., SJ Jones, SAMOT Ltd, Temile &amp; Sons (Itsekiri).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTill today, NAPIMS\u2019 major maintenance and EPIC contracts are being executed in Ijaw areas by well-known Urhobo and Isoko contractors: Macharry Ltd., De-Wayles, Chief Bernard Edewor, etc., pushing Ijaw contractors like High Chief Tunde Smooth out of his well-known marine equipment business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut no Ijaw community, either collectively or individually, has protested against, undermined, or frustrated these Urhobo or Isoko contractors or sought to expel them from Ijawland. Similarly, no Ijaw community is protesting and fighting the Olu of Warri\u2019s company\u2014Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited\u2014from executing its surveillance and security contract, exactly like Tantita\u2019s, in Ijaw areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRather, the Ijaw communities are assisting and cooperating with the Olu\u2019s PINL to successfully execute its work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is flowing from the above that I appeal to our Urhobo and Itsekiri brothers to be circumspect and think twice about this fight against Tantita. Because no one knows the aftermath. Your brothers and chiefs are operating contracts and eating in Ijaw areas for decades\u201410, 15, 20, 35 years and even today. Ijaws did not deprive them. But the only one that fate gave to an Ijaw man, you say he should not work in your area? How fair is that?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Chairman of Tantita is an Ijaw leader from both Gbaramatu and Ogulagha kingdoms, key oil-producing kingdoms with massive assets helping the economy of Delta State and Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo Ijaws should tell Macharry Ltd. and De-Wayles, owned by Urhobos, to pull out of Ijaw areas where they work today too, since you don\u2019t want Tantita owned by an Ijaw man in your areas?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have managed our unity and togetherness better than this. Who knows if after years, an Urhobo man will be given this work that Tantita Services is doing today? Will Ijaws now say that such contractor(s) should not work in Ijaw areas too? This is a dangerous trend that the Urhobos are starting. It is better they have a rethink before it will force Ijaws to react with tit-for-tat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\">Nigeria<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Urhobo indigenes in Delta State have been cautioned to desist from protesting against the pipeline protection contract being executed by Tantita Security Services Limited and its chairman, Ijaw leader Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo. The warning was issued by Chief Larry Adanike, a community leader in the oil-producing Ogulagha Kingdom [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":168613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[1570,2140,254],"class_list":["post-168614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Delta community leader warns Urhobos against protests over Tantita pipeline contract - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/delta-community-leader-warns-urhobos-against-protests-over-tantita-pipeline-contract\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Delta community leader warns Urhobos against protests over Tantita pipeline contract\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Urhobo indigenes in Delta State have been cautioned to desist from protesting against the pipeline protection contract being executed by Tantita Security Services Limited and its chairman, Ijaw leader Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo. 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