A few months after two Britons were arrested in connection with the controversial sale, Norwegian Defence Chief, Haakon Bruun-Hansen has apologised to the country’s lawmakers for the sale of a fleet of a decommissioned naval battleships and combats boats to a former Niger Delta militant, Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo.
Mr. Ekpemupolo was the leader of one of the several militias in the Niger Delta region that led a devastating campaign of violence against the Nigerian state for several years until he was awarded a multi-billion pipeline protection contract by the out-going Goodluck Jonathan administration as part of an amnesty deal with ex-combatants.
After giving up fighting, surrendering his arms, and leading his men to hand over their weapons, Tompolo, received at least six decommissioned Norwegian battleships.
Among them were six fast-speed Hauk-class guided missile boats, now re-armed with new weapons.
The most recent hardware was the KNM Horten, a fast-attack craft allegedly used for anti-piracy patrol in the Nigerian waters.
A Norwegian newspaper, Daglabet reported that the sale was implemented through a shell maritime Security Company based in the United Kingdom, CAS Global.
CAS Global was used to evade a requirement by Norway that arms dealers obtain export license from their country’s foreign affairs ministry, the report adds.
Mr. Ekpemupolo runs Global West Vessel Service, which handles maritime security issues for the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA.
After the deal became public in December, the Director General of NIMASA, Patrick Ziakede Akpobolokemi, claimed the vessels were purchased as part of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement in conjunction with the Nigerian Navy. He said the Navy has rearmed the vessels to enable it effectively carried out its anti-piracy patrol.
“As an arm of the government responsible for maritime safety, security and regulations amongst others, we work in conjunction with the Nigerian Navy and other relevant security agencies to use their men and arms to patrol and provide safety of the country’s water ways, as mandated by the global body, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
“It is the Navy that has fitted their guns on the vessels to aid their policing of the maritime domain,” he said.
The Norwegian government also, at the time, defended the transaction, according to Daglabet newspaper, saying the export “followed correct procedure and terms of export to Great Britain. The re-export from Great Britain to Nigeria is a question to be handled solely by British export control authorities”.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that in January, two British businessmen were arrested on suspicion of bribing a Norwegian official alleged to have been involved in the controversial sale of the former naval vessels.
According to the London-based Independent newspaper, a joint investigation by the City of London’s Overseas Anti-Corruption Unit (OACU) and their counterparts in Norway, Okokrim, examined how the former warships, including missile-torpedo boats (MTBs), ended up under the control the former Niger Delta militant .
Detectives from the OACU arrested a man in his early 40s at his home in Alfreton, Derbyshire, and a man in his late 50s at an address in East Molesey, Surrey.
The two are alleged to have made payments to a Norwegian civil servant totalling more than $150,000.
The money, in two separate transactions, is alleged to have been paid directly into the official’s personal bank account. The cash is alleged to have helped secure the sale of the decommissioned Norwegian Navy ships by disguising the eventual destination of the warships.
Under Norway’s ethical foreign policy rules, the direct sale of the decommissioned warships to a private Nigerian company regarded as effectively running the country’s outsourced national coast guard could have proved difficult.
It is understood that the Norwegian authorities assumed their former naval MTBs, post-sale, would be converted to unarmed vessels and operate under European laws.
In addition to the two arrests in England, a business address in Surrey was also searched by the OACU with computer equipment and documents seized.
The UK police have not named the company involved, stating only that it was involved in “international risk management for the maritime industry”.
However authorities in Norway had said the arrested men are connected to a UK firm called CAS Global, which is headquartered in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. The firm described itself as specialising in “maritime services”.
CAS also has registered offices in Lagos, in Tema in Ghana, and in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.
Police in Norway have arrested a third man in Tonsberg on the country’s south west coast.
DCI Danny Medlycott, head of the OACU, said the operation was a “great example” of how his unit was working closely with other international enforcement partners “to combat bribery and corruption.”
Although the OACU have been involved in 150 corruption and bribery operations since it was established in 2006, its most high-profile success is Operation Cent, which resulted in the convictions of those involved in producing and selling fake “substance detectors”.
The “useless” devices, which had a £3m annual turnover, were sold around the world and marketed as capable of finding explosives. The trial judge said the scam investigated by the OACU had “damaged the reputation of British trade abroad”.
The former Norwegian missile torpedo boats are now part of a private fleet under the control of Tompolo. He was a militia leader in the 2009 Niger Delta insurgency that fought the Nigerian army and destroyed oil installations in widespread protests against corruption and mismanagement in the region’s high-value oil industry.
Since the uprising and following Jonathan’s first election victory in 2011, Tompolo’s security firm, Global West Vessels Specialist (GWVS), has won lucrative state contracts that have been criticised in some quarters as undermining the authority of the Nigerian Navy.
Okokrim – Norway’s National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime – were tasked with investigating how the sale of the vessels was fast-tracked to a UK-registered company, but ended up in the fleet owned by Tompolo.http://shippingposition.com.ng/article/tompolo%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98warships%E2%80%99-re-echoes
Mr. Ekpemupolo was the leader of one of the several militias in the Niger Delta region that led a devastating campaign of violence against the Nigerian state for several years until he was awarded a multi-billion pipeline protection contract by the out-going Goodluck Jonathan administration as part of an amnesty deal with ex-combatants.
After giving up fighting, surrendering his arms, and leading his men to hand over their weapons, Tompolo, received at least six decommissioned Norwegian battleships.
Among them were six fast-speed Hauk-class guided missile boats, now re-armed with new weapons.
The most recent hardware was the KNM Horten, a fast-attack craft allegedly used for anti-piracy patrol in the Nigerian waters.
A Norwegian newspaper, Daglabet reported that the sale was implemented through a shell maritime Security Company based in the United Kingdom, CAS Global.
CAS Global was used to evade a requirement by Norway that arms dealers obtain export license from their country’s foreign affairs ministry, the report adds.
Mr. Ekpemupolo runs Global West Vessel Service, which handles maritime security issues for the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA.
After the deal became public in December, the Director General of NIMASA, Patrick Ziakede Akpobolokemi, claimed the vessels were purchased as part of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement in conjunction with the Nigerian Navy. He said the Navy has rearmed the vessels to enable it effectively carried out its anti-piracy patrol.
“As an arm of the government responsible for maritime safety, security and regulations amongst others, we work in conjunction with the Nigerian Navy and other relevant security agencies to use their men and arms to patrol and provide safety of the country’s water ways, as mandated by the global body, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
“It is the Navy that has fitted their guns on the vessels to aid their policing of the maritime domain,” he said.
The Norwegian government also, at the time, defended the transaction, according to Daglabet newspaper, saying the export “followed correct procedure and terms of export to Great Britain. The re-export from Great Britain to Nigeria is a question to be handled solely by British export control authorities”.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that in January, two British businessmen were arrested on suspicion of bribing a Norwegian official alleged to have been involved in the controversial sale of the former naval vessels.
According to the London-based Independent newspaper, a joint investigation by the City of London’s Overseas Anti-Corruption Unit (OACU) and their counterparts in Norway, Okokrim, examined how the former warships, including missile-torpedo boats (MTBs), ended up under the control the former Niger Delta militant .
Detectives from the OACU arrested a man in his early 40s at his home in Alfreton, Derbyshire, and a man in his late 50s at an address in East Molesey, Surrey.
The two are alleged to have made payments to a Norwegian civil servant totalling more than $150,000.
The money, in two separate transactions, is alleged to have been paid directly into the official’s personal bank account. The cash is alleged to have helped secure the sale of the decommissioned Norwegian Navy ships by disguising the eventual destination of the warships.
Under Norway’s ethical foreign policy rules, the direct sale of the decommissioned warships to a private Nigerian company regarded as effectively running the country’s outsourced national coast guard could have proved difficult.
It is understood that the Norwegian authorities assumed their former naval MTBs, post-sale, would be converted to unarmed vessels and operate under European laws.
In addition to the two arrests in England, a business address in Surrey was also searched by the OACU with computer equipment and documents seized.
The UK police have not named the company involved, stating only that it was involved in “international risk management for the maritime industry”.
However authorities in Norway had said the arrested men are connected to a UK firm called CAS Global, which is headquartered in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. The firm described itself as specialising in “maritime services”.
CAS also has registered offices in Lagos, in Tema in Ghana, and in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.
Police in Norway have arrested a third man in Tonsberg on the country’s south west coast.
DCI Danny Medlycott, head of the OACU, said the operation was a “great example” of how his unit was working closely with other international enforcement partners “to combat bribery and corruption.”
Although the OACU have been involved in 150 corruption and bribery operations since it was established in 2006, its most high-profile success is Operation Cent, which resulted in the convictions of those involved in producing and selling fake “substance detectors”.
The “useless” devices, which had a £3m annual turnover, were sold around the world and marketed as capable of finding explosives. The trial judge said the scam investigated by the OACU had “damaged the reputation of British trade abroad”.
The former Norwegian missile torpedo boats are now part of a private fleet under the control of Tompolo. He was a militia leader in the 2009 Niger Delta insurgency that fought the Nigerian army and destroyed oil installations in widespread protests against corruption and mismanagement in the region’s high-value oil industry.
Since the uprising and following Jonathan’s first election victory in 2011, Tompolo’s security firm, Global West Vessels Specialist (GWVS), has won lucrative state contracts that have been criticised in some quarters as undermining the authority of the Nigerian Navy.
Okokrim – Norway’s National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime – were tasked with investigating how the sale of the vessels was fast-tracked to a UK-registered company, but ended up in the fleet owned by Tompolo.http://shippingposition.com.ng/article/tompolo%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98warships%E2%80%99-re-echoes
No comments:
Post a Comment