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Federal lawmakers and leaders of the Niger Delta host communities have rejected recurring calls for the decentralisation of the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, describing the agitation as legally baseless, misleading, and contrary to the interests of the Niger Delta region.
The position was adopted at the end of a joint retreat involving the House of Representatives Committees on Host Communities (HOSTCOM) and Public Petitions, alongside HOSTCOM Trustees representing oil-producing communities across the Niger Delta.
The one-day retreat, held on Wednesday at the Protea Hotel, Owerri, resolved that the Tantita pipeline surveillance contract remains a private commercial arrangement between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, and therefore cannot be subjected to demands for “decentralisation.”
Participants at the retreat insisted that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) had already provided a legal framework for community participation through the HOSTCOM structure and host community development trusts.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the stakeholders dismissed petitions and complaints seeking the decentralisation of the Tantita contract, describing them as a deliberate attempt to confuse two legally distinct issues.
“All calls for the ‘decentralisation’ of the said private pipeline surveillance contract are hereby dismissed in the strongest terms as baseless, anti-Niger Delta, and proceeding from a wilful conflation of two legally distinct matters,” the communiqué stated.
The retreat further declared that all complaints and petitions before the joint committees regarding the matter had been formally dismissed.
According to the stakeholders, the Tantita contract is operationally and legally separate from the statutory HOSTCOM regime established under the Petroleum Industry Act for the benefit of oil-producing communities.
Delivering the keynote address, Professor of Energy and Comparative Environmental Law, Prof. S. C. Dike, said the agitation for decentralisation reflected a misunderstanding of the legal nature of the surveillance contract.
“When we hear the call for the ‘decentralisation’ of the Tantita contract, what is being demanded in plain English?” Dike queried.
“Nothing more than this: that a private commercial contract between two named parties should be redistributed or cancelled to allow other parties to benefit. That is not decentralisation. That is not community participation. That is a category error. It is the conflation of two legally distinct matters,” he stated.
The legal scholar explained that the contract between NNPCL and Tantita was governed by the doctrine of privity of contract, which limits contractual rights and obligations strictly to the parties involved in the agreement.
He cited judicial authorities, including Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company Limited v. Selfridge & Company Limited, as well as Nigerian cases involving Shell Petroleum, to support his argument that third parties cannot lay legal claim to a private contractual arrangement.
“The law is clear on this matter,” he said. “A private contract cannot simply be fragmented or redistributed because others desire participation. That is not how contracts operate under any recognised legal system.”
Prof. Dike maintained that host communities seeking greater participation in oil infrastructure protection should engage through the lawful structures already provided under the Petroleum Industry Act.
“If individuals or groups genuinely want to support the protection of critical national assets, they should do so through the HOSTCOM Trustee structures established under the PIA, not through campaigns rooted in private contractual ambition,” he added.
Chairman of the House Committee on HOSTCOM, Hon. Dekor Dumnamene Robinson, also dismissed the agitation, saying the issue had been settled both legally and politically.
“The noise must stop. The PIA has spoken. The Niger Delta has spoken. The host communities have spoken,” Robinson declared.
“There is no missing decentralisation, and there is no statutory basis for the so-called decentralisation of a private contract,” he added.
The lawmaker stressed that the focus of stakeholders should now shift toward more pressing developmental concerns affecting oil-producing communities.
According to him, the retreat resolved to prioritise efforts toward amending the Petroleum Industry Act to increase the HOSTCOM funding allocation from three percent to six percent.
“Our communities need better schools, roads, healthcare facilities, environmental remediation, youth empowerment, and sustainable development,” Robinson said.
“That is where our energy should be directed — not unnecessary distractions over private business arrangements,” he added.
Stakeholders at the retreat also argued that the current surveillance arrangement had contributed significantly to the reduction of crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and illegal bunkering activities in the Niger Delta.
They maintained that the improvement in oil production and national revenue in recent years demonstrated the effectiveness of the existing security framework.
The retreat concluded with a renewed call for stronger support for host community development initiatives and sustained collaboration between government institutions, oil companies, and local communities to ensure peace and stability in the Niger Delta region.
