Cold Trail
When this reporter put a call through to Rear Admiral Suleiman a day after his initial inspection of NAOC’s Brass River terminal, he sounded surprised that word was out. “I’m still working. Don’t let the cat out of the bag. I need to analyse the samples. Call me at the end of the week.”
However, it increasingly became more difficult to reach him, despite numerous calls and text messages. On one occasion he picked up the phone, he cautioned about going to press. “You need to hold on. Your story will not be complete, until you get my input,” he said without confirming the status of the samples he took. This was an assertion that this reporter reluctantly agreed to at the time.
The next time the JTF Commander picked the phone, he told this reporter off for continually calling him. “If I’m not picking your calls, it means I can’t talk,” he retorted. A few days later, he was redeployed to Defence Headquarters in Abuja as Chief of Defence Administration.
Rear Admiral Akinjide Akinrinade took over from Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman as JTF Commander of Operation Delta Safe on April 1. Speaking during the handover ceremony at the headquarters in Yenagoa, he promised criminal elements in the region a tough time.
However, Rear Admiral Akinjide seems to be in the dark over the operation at Agip’s Brass terminal. Or at least, that is what he said when this reporter reached him over the phone.
“I don’t have a firm idea of what you are talking about. It’s the same Suleiman you will have to reach out to,” he replied.
Still following the trail of the investigation, a call was placed to the Flag Officer Commanding Central Naval Command, Yenagoa, Rear Admiral Saidu Garba.
“Since you have been speaking with the former JTF Commander, I think you should speak with the person that took over from him, because that is an operation that they are doing. I’m not even aware of it,” Rear Admiral Garba said.
“Obviously, if Suleiman had been conducting an investigation, probably he has already submitted it to the people that directed him to conduct the investigation.
“I suspect maybe that task has been completed. You know everything is subject to a lot of cross-checking and corroboration, so if you’re talking of somebody committing an offence of that nature, you need all your facts in place. You cannot make an allegation out of nowhere.
“So you have to follow up with him. It’s not within my purview. I may be responsible for everything that happens there but sometimes, when an investigation comes from outside like that, it may be for checks and balances,” Rear Admiral Garba informed.
With the former JTF Commander still difficult to reach, this reporter decided to hear NAOC’s side of the story. First was the General Manager District (Port Harcourt), Mr Tianni Alessandro, who neither picked his calls nor replied text messages in a period spanning more than a week.
Next was General Manager, Nigeria Content Development, Tajudeen Adigun, who picked up the phone and promised to refer the reporter to a public affairs personnel since he was not authorised to speak. He thereafter stopped responding to calls.
Finally, an email was sent to NAOC’s Managing Director, Lorenzo Fiorillo, who is yet to reply.