Two Britons Arrested over Bribe Involving Gunboats Sold to Tompolo



A. K. A Tampolo

Davidson Iriekpen with agency report With the dust yet to settle over the procurement of seven gunboats by a private security firm belonging to ex-Niger Delta militant, Government Ekpemuplo, aka Tompolo, purportedly for the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), it has emerged that two British businessmen have been arrested on suspicion of bribing a Norwegian official alleged to have been involved in the controversial sale of the former naval vessels.
[b]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 of a former Niger Delta militant who now runs privatised national security contracts worth millions of dollars that have been authorised by the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan.
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.[/b]
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.
With a general election in Nigeria scheduled for February, both the Norwegian Ministry of Defence and the country’s foreign affairs departments in Oslo, were likely to have asked for a lengthy political assessment of the export deal if the destination of the vessels had been fully known.
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 have 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 Nigeria’s largest city, 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, who is a close political ally of the Nigerian president.

Gbawe:
Shades of the South-Africa "arms purchase" mess involving the FG and Oritsejafor. A rogue government that always acts in a rogue way to disguise its rogue intentions. How can any sensible Nigerian be contemplating voting for a Government that acts like a criminal mafia gang always?

Howmon:
When I ask for source I ain't talking Osun defender, it's like asking for sauce and some1 brings you a bicycle pedal!!!

Howmon:
When I ask for source I ain't talking Osun defender, it's like asking for sauce and some1 brings you a bicycle pedal!!!

Alphaoscar:
Ghenghen!! Alarm blow finnaly.

baybeeboi:
APC
you neva get tired

baybeeboi:
APC
you neva get tired

OrlandoOwoh:

Your future is being messed with, you are saying rubbish.

Concern Mounts in House over Tompolo’s Purchase of Gunboats

19 Dec 2014


Receives report of constitution review friday
Muhammad Bello in Abuja

Despite the explanations provided by the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on the procurement of seven gunboats by an ex-Niger Delta militant, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, for the maritime agency, the House of Representatives on Thursday expressed concern over the development.

The House said it was not comfortable with the way and manner in which a private coastal security company owned by Tompolo procured the seven gunboats recently.

The House spokesman, Hon. Zakari Mohammed, told journalists that the development was fearsome, thus propelling the lower chamber to consider the probe of the purchase of the military hardware by the ex-militant on resumption in January 2015.

“This is a cause for concern. We have gotten certain systems wrong in the country. The development is scary and worrisome. We thought such procurements are handled by the navy.

“On resumption, the relevant House committees will look into it to know the facts of the matter.

“The individual (Tompolo) was paid to protect our waterways, but the irony is that we still have a lot of leakages. The House of Representatives faulted that contract but our reservations were buried in sentiments,” Mohammed said.

In a separate development, the National Assembly will friday receive the conference report of the review of the 1999 Constitution, which was earlier transmitted to state Houses of Assembly for their votes and concurrence.
The constitution amendment bill is expected to show the voting patterns from the 36 state assemblies on the proposed 71 amendments.

The National Assembly had amended portions pertaining to legislative immunity, local government autonomy, state creation, indigeneship and citizenship dichotomy, independent candidacy in elections, the budgetary process, life pensions for National Assembly heads, the role for traditional rulers, local government autonomy, and separation of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation from the Minister of Justice, among others.

The Chief of Training and Operations of the Nigerian Navy, Rear Admiral Austin Oyagha, at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday said reports that Tompolo had acquired gunboats, initially misreported as warships, were untrue.

He explained that the said gunboats belonged to NIMASA and were being manned by personnel of the Nigerian Navy from the maritime component of the service, in consonance with a pact between the agency and the navy.

BRAV0O:
See ? Lot of sh!!t happen like no other under gej , I don't no what they take us for , can u imagine

Pls who is tompolo ?

2sExy1:
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/two-britons-arrested-over-bribe-involving-gunboats-sold-to-tompolo/199755/


That's another source... Osudefender may have uplifted from this day

Gbawe:


Is thisdaylive.com a good enough source for you? Osun defender was only quoting others . Can you now pass your comment related to the substantive point of discussion? Failure to do this will confirm you are a TANdroid mischief-maker looking to jump to the automatic defence of GEJ through use of the tired modus operandi of trying to discredit the source of the news rather than tackle the message.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/two-britons-arrested-over-bribe-involving-gunboats-sold-to-tompolo/199755/

gists:
Only under a clueless GEJ will a militant be this powerful. Not even Abacha could have plunged Nigeria into an abyss of corruption and insecurity like this.

skyfall:
Anything Jonathan and his criminal gang touch is definitely tained with fraud and criminality.

Gbawe:
Nigeria may be steeped in illegality and the worship of 'untouchables' who abet the government of the day but these two Brits are in serious trouble. They will reveal all they know which will come out eventually. Ibori can testify to this. There will now be many 'associates'of GEJ the British investigative authorities will be watching and monitoring tenaciously.

OrlandoOwoh:

Your future is being messed with, you are saying rubbish.

Gbawe:


And you never develop shame or grow beyond your clannish outlook. Perhaps you now want to suggest the APC controls the City of London’s Overseas Anti-Corruption Unit (OACU) which snared the two Brits alleged to have given bribes which facilitated the dodgy purchase of gunboats by Tompolo who is a close associate of the Nigerian President.

You TANdroids are hardly exposed. All you know is courtesy of the browser on your phone so I don't expect your world stretches beyond shouting "APC" over every revelation of wrongdoing the Nigerian government is involved with. Countries like the UK do not care about your political Parties when the integrity of their security safeguards are breached by syndicated international criminality.

FOLYKAZE:


I have the believe that you are the owner of Osundefender. Am I right?

baybeeboi:

if this had come from the PDP,u wld say it's a fabricated lie abi?

Gbawe:



Yes you are. Any problem?