Tension in Niger Delta as Buhari stops Tompolo’s $103m contract with NIMASA

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the stoppage of the US$103 million contract between the Global West Vessel Specialist Nigeria Limited and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) which was approved in 2011 by the immediate past administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

The Global West Vessel Specialist Nigeria Limited (GWVSNL) is general believed to belong to ex-militant leader Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo.

GWVSNL secured the contract in 2011 to provide patrol boats and communication equipment for NIMASA. It was to also maintain, bunker and crew the boats and would only be paid when surpasses its revenue target and reach a certain benchmark.

He alleged that GWVSNL was paid half of the $150m (N30 billion) collected from Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas.

He further alleged that the agency paid N13bn to a company believed to be owned by Tompolo.

“This is what NIMASA has been turned into. Let us even assume that they were the ones that recovered the money; but where in the world do you pay a company half of the money it recovered?

We had such arrangements for the collection of NIMASA’s three per cent levy in the past and the company involved was paid five per cent of the money it recovers above a set benchmark,” he said.

In June, pioneer Chairman of the Board of NIMASA, Alhaji Tijjani Ramalan, said GWVSNL was paid N1.5bn monthly by NIMASA to execute the contract. He, however, lamented that despite the huge payment, the country still lost over 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily to oil theft. The former NIMASA chairman called on President Buhari to cancel the contract.





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