The Chairman/CEO of Gallery Security Services Limited, High Chief Bibopere Ajube has said that his firm would work with the conventional security agencies to make the waterways in Ondo State safer.
While addressing the 1,000-strong operatives of the security outfit at the company’s operational headquarters in Okaranpu, Ese Odo Local Government Area of the state, at the weekend, warned sea pirates, kidnappers, crude oil thieves and other vandals to steer clear of the area as the outfit was committed to ensuring the safety on the state’s waterways, working with the Nigerian Navy and other security agencies.
The drill was preparatory to the firm’s monitoring exercise on the state’s waterways and coastline areas.
Okaranpu said: ‘Our primary assignment now is to be on high alert. If we notice any strange movements in our territory, we are to respond immediately. Our operation around our border areas, waterways and coastline is to ensure that market women and other passengers doing legitimate and lawful businesses are protected and safe.
‘Also, we have to ensure that our national assets, that is, oil and gas installations and facilities that are in our area are secured. This is a major point of interest of the Renewed Hope administration of President Bola Tinubu.
‘We are doing this in collaboration with the Nigeria Navy in the state as this is a national assignment for the Armed Forces and for us working with them’.
Emphasising the determination of Gallery Security Services to enforce the government’s position on security of national assets, Ajube said with more than 10 years cognate experience, the company was poised to stop crude oil theft on the coastal waters.
‘There was a report that some persons were siphoning crude oil in the high sea. Gallery and Sea Max are here, and in collaboration with the Navy, we will ensure that nothing untoward happens in Ondo State’s waterways and to our oil and gas installations. We are the locals here and we play very key roles in ensuring security and safety.
‘We are very significant in terms of protecting the vast coastline and the waterways in Ondo because it is our area. Gallery Security has been in operation in this area since 2012. So we know every nook and cranny of this state’s waterways’.
He also warned against harbouring criminals and people of questionable character, describing such persons as snakes that are harmful when allowed into the house.
