In his native conglomerate of tentacles in oil exploration and production, power generation, construction, commodities trading, and telecommunications, Kola Karim is something of a folk hero.

He is an unwavering young multimillionaire and one of Nigeria’s most successful businessmen, who gained more reputations as a tycoon, when his industrial conglomerate, Shoreline Natural Resources Ltd, signed a joint venture with Mota-Engil, a pubic listed Portuguese contractor, with a strong presence in southern Africa, making it the third largest indigenous oil producer in Nigeria.

But one aspect of his life, Mr Karim would hesitate to see on the pages of newspapers is his dealings in endemic acts of criminality, smear campaigns and oil bunkering, relating to Trans Forcados Pipeline (TFP), a vital piece of Nigeria’s national oil infrastructure, which is capable of transporting 200,000 to 240,000 barrels of oil per day, equivalent to 14% of Nigeria’s daily production.

In a Press Release obtained by LAGOS TIMES, Nigeria’s leading asset protection company, Ocean Marine Solutions (OMS), indicted Kola Karim’s Shoreline Natural Resources Limited and Eraskorp Nigeria Limited, as major players in a smear campaign against OMS to disparage and defame the asset protection company, thereby, misinform Nigerians.

In the press release, OMS explained that, the TFP is the key to transporting crude oil from some of Nigeria’s largest and most prolific assets and it is therefore of fundamental national strategic importance, hence, the safety and protection of the TFP is of paramount interest to all Nigerians.

According to OMS, Eraskorp and its backers at Shoreline have been the players behind various sponsored demonstrations and malicious media onslaughts on its hard-earned reputation.

Furthermore, the shoddiness of Eraskorp and their allies was aptly reflected through the disjointed publication of ham-fisted attacks on OMS in December 2018.

OMS alleged that In their unbridled quest to malign its reputation, and create public disaffection against the company, Eraskorp alleged that NNPC awarded and re-awarded several surveillance and security contracts to OMS for a total sum of $9.9 million per month.

Refuting the claim, OMS insisted that, the assertion was not only a fallacy but also a deliberate misrepresentation of fact, as OMS currently manages and is in contract only on the Escravos – Warri and Bonny – Port Harcourt pipelines.

Surprisingly, the conspirators, according to OMS, which are Shoreline’s Kola Karim (Chiarman), Tunde Karim (Director), Maxwell Okoh, and Morris Idiovwa, claimed that the security contract for TFP was awarded to OMS against the wise counsel of all stakeholders in OML 30, the JV Partners, Operators and 111 communities in the oil field.

OMS, however, debunked the claimed, noting that, the company did not seek out the TFP security and surveillance contract, but were rather approached and invited to render its services because of the dire security situation and its reputation for delivering results.

OMS equally stated that, it had not signed the contract that was presented by NNPC due to the controversies that have been generated by disgruntled parties, adding that, its resolve is never to work in terrains where its intentions are misrepresented.

However, it is notable that the Trans Forcados Pipeline Proof of Concept contract proposed to OMS was premised on a structured security plan and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Under the proposed contract, OMS is obligated to protect the lines and is accountable if there is any breach to the pipeline and losses of crude, which completely differs from the old order where the contractor (Eraskorp) is paid for surveillance duties and totally exempted from repair costs or any other form of responsibility in the event of any break or breach to the pipeline for which the company has been contracted to watch over. Il

In this way the new contract will no longer reward failure.

This, therefore, makes the irresponsible claims and reports by Eraskorp and Shoreline of imminent loss of jobs by host community youths, completely incorrect mischievous and irresponsible.

OMS has therefore in an open letter called on the Presidency, the Department of State Security (DSS), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), among others to open an investigation into the TFP and expose the truth.