After Paying Trillions In Naira To Secure Pipelines In Niger Delta
OpenLife Nigeria reports that after paying trillions in Naira by the federal government of Nigeria to protect oil pipelines across the Niger Delta region, the United States Coast Guard, in collaboration with the US Navy, has intercepted a Nigerian-owned supertanker, Skipper, over allegations of crude oil theft, piracy, and other transnational crimes.
The vessel, a 20-year-old Very Large Crude Carrier, VLCC, with IMO Number 9304667, is reportedly owned and managed by Nigeria-based Thomarose Global Ventures Ltd., though its registered owner is listed as Triton Navigation Corp., headquartered in the Marshall Islands.
Authorities said the tanker was illegally flying the Guyanese flag at the time of its arrest.
In a swift rebuttal, Guyana’s Maritime Administration Department, MARAD, confirmed that Skipper is not on its national ship registry and was using the country’s flag without authorisation.
According to US security sources, the seizure was carried out under American law enforcement authority, with President Donald Trump announcing the operation.
Beyond suspicions of stolen crude, the vessel is also being investigated for allegedly transporting a large consignment of hard drugs and operating within a network backed by suspected Iranian and other Islamist-linked money-laundering financiers.
A check with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, Abuja, showed that Thomarose is inactive.
Further checks by Vanguard showed that Thomarose’s corporate address is listed as 111 Jakpa Road, Effurun, Warri, Delta State, with CAC registration number 1007876.
However, there are no phone numbers linked to the company.
It shows weakness in our Port State Control regime — CMS president, Olaniyan
Reacting to the seizure, the President of the Centre for Marine Surveyors, Nigeria, Engr. Akin Olaniyan, said that if the vessel indeed departed from Nigeria before being intercepted, it would indicate weaknesses in Nigeria’s Port State Control regime.
According to him, “If the vessel emanated from Nigeria, it suggests our Port State Control is practically non-existent. It also means any vessel leaving Nigerian waters may come under stricter scrutiny by Port State Control authorities in other countries. This issue has nothing to do with Nigeria as a country, but with regulatory enforcement.”
Similarly, the National President of Oil and Gas Service Providers Association of Nigeria, OGSPAN, Mazi Colman Obasi, said: “I have never heard that Nigeria has a supertanker and that it is not active in CAC. I don’t even know if stakeholders are aware. Anyway, the government and other agencies can do more.”
Similarly, former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Mr. Temisan Omatseye, said he had only just received information about the vessel’s arrest and could not give an informed reaction.
On its part, the NIMASA said it had no official information on the incident. The agency’s spokesman, Mr. Edward Osagie, told Vanguard to forward an official enquiry, assuring that it would be addressed appropriately.
Reacting, a Port Harcourt-based energy analyst, said: “With the existence of some government agencies and the involvement of private contractors, we expected oil theft and other illegal activities to stop or reduce drastically. One is surprised that this and other practices still go on.
“All agencies need to do more than they currently do. No nation can progress if its citizens continue to steal its crude, the resource that enable the nation to generate foreign exchange for economic development.”
Nigeria lost 13.5m barrels of crude worth $3.3bn to theft, sabotage in one year — NEITI
Earlier this year, it came to light that the Federal Government lost a total of 13.5 million barrels of crude oil worth $3.3 billion to theft and pipeline sabotage between 2023 and 2024. Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Dr. Ogbonnanya Orji, disclosed in Lagos at the 2025 Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) conference in Lagos on October 7.
He spoke on the theme, ‘Nigeria’s Energy Future: Exploring Opportunities and Addressing Risks for Sustainable Growth.’
Orji noted that the lost revenue could have supported a full year of the federal health budget or provided energy access to millions of households.
He further disclosed that its 2021–2022 Oil and Gas Industry Reports indicated that Nigeria earned $23.04 billion in 2021 and $23.05 billion in 2022 from the sector.
In addition, it stated that N1.5 trillion were owed to the Federation by some companies and government agencies, saying the funds could have supported the provision of energy infrastructure and healthcare to the people.
Orji spoke further: “Over the past decade, NEITI has evolved from an auditing agency to a governance reform institution.
“We have institutionalised regular audits of oil, gas, and solid mineral sectors, tracking production, payments, and remediation; developed Nigeria’s Beneficial Ownership Register, unmasking the true owners of over 4,800 extractive assets, and helping the government combat corruption and illicit financial flows; and launched the NEITI Data Centre—a national open-data infrastructure that provides real-time public access to industry information.
Atiku Raises Alarm Over Humongous budget for securing pipelines
The report that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) spent a humongous ₦17.5 trillion in just 12 months on “securing fuel pipelines and others” stands as one of the most brazen financial scandals in our nation’s history.
For clarity, Nigeria spent roughly ₦18 trillion on fuel subsidy over a period of twelve years — a national programme that directly cushioned millions of Nigerians, stabilised the transport sector, and helped keep food prices manageable.
Yet, under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the country has now expended nearly the same amount in a single year on same subsidy and opaque pipeline security contracts awarded to private firms tied to associates and cronies of the President. Indeed, the action of the President is akin to robbing Peter (Nigerians) to pay Paul (cronies).
This is not governance. This is grand larceny dressed as public expenditure.
The Tinubu administration justified the removal of fuel subsidy by claiming the country could no longer afford it. Nigerians were told to tighten their belts, endure hardship, and “make sacrifices.”
However, the same administration has now channelled ₦17.5 trillion — an amount that could transform Nigeria’s power sector, rebuild our refineries, or fund universal healthcare — into opaque security contracts whose beneficiaries are conveniently linked to those in power.
In some places in the country, a litre of PMS goes for over N1,000 and the justification for this by the Tinubu administration is the wholesome removal of subsidy, yet according to the records provided by the NNPCL, this same administration has spentN7.13tn on what it calls, “energy-security cost to keep petrol prices stable”; another N8.67tn on what it calls “under-recovery.”
These two balablu nomenclatures: energy-cost and under-recovery are a new coinage of the Tinubu administration to deceive Nigerians on the government’s fraudulent claim that it was no longer paying subsidies on petroleum products.
This raises fundamental questions of public trust and national integrity
*Who are the companies paid under these contracts?
*What specifically justifies a 38.7 percent rise in the amount of energy-cost from N6.25tn in 2024 to N8.67tn in 2025?
*Why is pipeline security now more expensive than a decade-long subsidy that served over 200 million Nigerians?
*Where are the audit reports, parliamentary oversight findings, and cost-validation documents?
No administration that presides over this level of fiscal recklessness has the moral authority to demand sacrifice from its people. The Nigerian public cannot continue to suffer crushing inflation, punitive fuel prices, an unending collapse of the naira, and widespread hunger — only for a select circle of political allies to pocket trillions under the guise of “pipeline security.”
This scandal confirms what Nigerians already know: the Tinubu administration did not end subsidy — it merely redirected public wealth from the entire nation to a privileged cartel anchored around the Presidency.
The government must, without delay:
1. Publish the full list of companies awarded these contracts;
2. Disclose the scope, deliverables, and duration of each contract;
3. Subject the entire ₦17.5 trillion expenditure to an independent forensic audit;
4. Halt further disbursement until accountability is established;
5. Explain to Nigerians how this expenditure aligns with national priorities at a time of unprecedented economic strangulation.
Nigerians deserve transparency, not deceit. They deserve leadership, not cronyism. And they deserve a government that places national interest above private enrichment.
This ₦17.5 trillion pipeline-security expenditure is not merely a financial anomaly — it is a moral indictment on the Tinubu administration and a clarion call for full accountability.
Paul O Ibe
Signed:
Atiku Media Office
Abuja
November 30, 2025.
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