The federal government and militant youths of the Niger Delta region may eventually come to blows over the tension that has continued to brew between Tompolo and the law.
Government Ekpemupolo, better known as Tompolo, is a high chief of the Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South local government area of Delta State. Tompolo is not just an everyday high chief- he is a “General” in guerrilla warfare.
Traditionally, he is the Ibe-ebidouwei of Ijaw nation. By direct translation, a man that desires the good of Ijaw nation. Though traditionally designated a high chief, fact is that he is a kingmaker, a powerhouse and a powerbroker within all Ijaw territories in the Niger Delta.
At the height of militancy in the region, between 2006 and 2009, the militant Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), which he was one of its lead commanders, reduced the country’s oil production capacity by more than a quarter.
He operated the dreadful Camp 5. They snatched away expatriate oil workers at every turn for ransom. Armed to the teeth in both the land and high sea, they made the entire region impregnable and treacherous to security and law enforcement agents. They earned by force, the right to execute illegal oil exports, crude oil swaps for arms and illegal refineries.
In May 2009, Brigadier-general Sarkin Yaki Bello, commander of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF), in Niger Delta, had to declare Tompolo, “the most wanted man in Nigeria.” Only the federal government amnesty programme initiated by the late former president Umaru Yar’Adua, thawed the situation. Up till the moment, Tompolo still packs a sting and remains the patron of the Ijaw Youth Leadership Forum (IYLF), which in actual fact, is an umbrella body of all Ijaw budding militants.
Few years after the 2009 proclamation of amnesty programme, Tompolo forayed into all sorts of businesses, including the establishment of a diving school in Warri. While no concrete facts establish his ownership of Global West Vessel Specialist Limited (GWVSL), speculations are rife that the maritime outfit belongs to him. GWVSL got a 10-year, maritime concession worth a handsome N15 billion in November 2011, from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) under the leadership of Patrick Akpobolokemi, which was endorsed by the Federal Executive Federal Executive (FEC) on January 5, 2012, to furnish the Nigerian Navy with maritime surveillance vessels. The company by the terms of the contract, also provided platforms for tracking ships and cargoes and enforcing regulatory compliance and surveillance of the entire Nigerian maritime domain. Akpobolokemi declared that GWVSL “will provide platforms for effective policing of Nigeria’s maritime domain and ensure compliance with international maritime conventions on vessels and ships voyaging in the country’s waters, help the Federal government enforce the Cabotage Law and collect levies on its behalf.”
Not only has this mouth-watering contract been cancelled by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, the account of GWVSL has also been frozen by government, on the suspicion that the company belongs to Tompolo. What is strange is that Tompolo’s name does not feature anywhere in the documents of the nation’s company incorporating authority, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), even as a board member. For all the federal government has amassed against him on allegations of corrupt enrichment, Tompolo is right now facing prosecution.
On November 25, 2015, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) invited him for questioning in its Lagos office. Rather than appear, Tompolo responded through a memo from his lawyers, Messrs Jakpa, Edoge & Co; reminding the anti-graft agency that he would stay away, pending the determination of his earlier suit against the commission. He filed the said suit, with suit number Suit No: FHC/W/CS/152/2015, on October 20, 2015, to which the commission also refused to appear in court as and when due.
“In fact, EFCC only invited me two months after I sued them. In my solicitor’s letter I informed them that as soon as the court decides one way or another, I would honour their invitation,” Tompolo said, while explaining why he shunned the EFCC invite.
Tompolo’s suit against the EFCC, came after the commission froze his bank accounts on August 4, 2015.
On its own part, the EFCC, desired to grill Tompolo over what the agency sees as fraudulent contracts between NIMASA and GWVSL, it suspects is owned by him. On December 10, 2015, (15 days after Tompolo’s first invite), the EFCC followed up with a different one, this time to examine Tompolo over his sale of a land, allegedly to the tune of N13 billion to the federal government, through NIMASA, for the establishment of a maritime university in Warri, Delta State, which Tompolo again, spurned.
On January 15, 2016, when the EFCC, preferred a 40-count charge of money laundering, conspiracy, stealing and diversion of funds against Tompolo, Akpobolokemi, GWVSL, Odimiri Electrical Limited and Kime Engozu, Boloboere Property and Estate Limited, Rex Elem, Destre Consult Limited, Mr. Gregory Mbonu and Captain Warredi Enisuoh, Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos issued an arrest warrant on Tompolo, for refusing to appear in court and urged the police to ensure that he was arrested and produced in court on February 8, date of adjournment. Tompolo and the other accused were alleged to have diverted N34 billion which accrued from the NIMASA partnership agreement with GWVSL, for their personal use.
Tompolo sees the court declaration of him as a wanted man, a provocation.
“As a full blooded Ijaw man and citizen of Nigeria, I have done everything in my power to follow the laws of Nigeria. Since the amnesty was declared in 2009 by late President Yar’Adua, I have restrained myself to ensure that we all live in peace in this country. Those who think they can push us to war must rethink the necessity of such a war. How can a law-abiding government declare a man wanted who is in the law courts with them?”
Last Wednesday, the EFCC issued another release, in which it indicated that it was about to drag Tompolo through yet a different prosecution for the land deal.
Titled: “Tompolo, Ex-NIMASA DG to Face Fresh Charges – EFCC,” the commission said it was set “to file fresh criminal charges against Government Ekpemupolo popularly known as Tompolo and a former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi over an alleged scam in the acquisition of a property worth N11,765,308, 339.80 .
“The property: Mieka Dive Institute, a sprawling expanse, purportedly acquired by NIMASA for the take-off of the Nigerian Maritime University, was approved for outright purchase by the past administration in the sum of N13,072,564,822. in which a sum of N11,765,308,339.80 had been paid through NIMASA.
According to EFCC, “Investigations showed that the fund was fraudulently claimed through an alleged false presentation of a Certificate of Customary Right of Occupancy of the property and an alleged inflation of the property sum. This is in addition to the fact that, the same property was allegedly wrongly acquired and wrongly purchased, as the Omadino Community of Delta State, the rightful owners of the property is making a demand for rightful payment of the same land.”
The property in question is a large expanse of land that hosts 10 magnificent buildings. It was where Tompolo had established his diving school and when he decided to do away with the project and sell off the assets, NIMASA applied to buy, in order to use the property and facilities for a start up site for its maritime university.
NIMASA which acquired the property on behalf of the federal government, first got the nod of the supervising Ministry of Transport, which proceeded to approach FEC and got its nod, after which the Ministry of Land and Housing came in for evaluation, and upon its conclusion, reverted back to FEC. The council finally authorised payment.
Tompolo’s media manager, who declined mention, said “in terms of what we call due process in Nigeria, the transaction went through every process.”
He described the EFCC invites and the court summons as mere government gambits to see if it could get hold of Tompolo and put him away in detention, while it continues to scavenge for evidence to nail him.
“There is nothing that links Tompolo to the ownership of the company the government alleges he owns. There are no evidences linking the alleged payments to him. How then are they going to sustain their allegations before the law? They know all these. We know all these, so all they want to do is see if they can get hold of him and put him away, while endlessly searching for evidence and amending the charges,” he said.
In a statement he signed, Tompolo declared his prosecution over the land transaction as politically-driven and having nothing to do with fraud.
“I know why they are after me. It is not the alleged multi-billion naira property transaction. After all, it went through due process and was approved by the FEC. And as such if there are any questions to answer, it is the people at the FEC, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Federal Ministry of Lands and Survey, Federal Ministry of Transport, NIMASA, etc who approved the transaction that should be answering such questions.
“The real reason this All Progressive Congress (APC)-led government is after me is that I bluntly refused to join APC and to support their governorship candidate in Bayelsa State. We cannot all be in APC.”
Following the blast on an oil installation in the wake of the bench warrant issued against Tompolo, the former militant leader issued an open letter to President Buhari, washing his hands clean of the incident. He said he was committed to peace in the country and had devoted a lot of attention to securing the country’s oil facilities since the amnesty programme, and had no cause to implement the sabotage. He accused those who desire to cash in on the matter between him and the federal government to foment trouble as being behind the attacks.
“I wish to inform you that, it has come to my knowledge that the leader of your party and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC in Bayelsa and a few young men from Warri South West LGA of Delta State, who joined the party from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after the 2015 presidential election are hell bent on linking me to the renewed vandalisation of oil facilities in the Niger Delta region, whereas they are the ones carrying out the act to smear my name.
“The leader of your party in Bayelsa state approached me shortly after my meeting with you in Abuja, that I should accompany him to meet you and plead for him to be appointed as special adviser, SA and chairman of the Presidential Amnesty programme committee, which I refused to do because of his antecedents… It was thereafter he forced his way into the governorship election of the state, which almost tore the state apart with violence, beginning with the party primary in which he demonstrated a high level of desperation as was recounted by the chairman of the committee and governor of Edo State,Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
“As for the members of the party from my local government area, Warri South West, they have been involved in illegal bunkering and oil theft activities over the years, which I have been fighting against because of love for country. They know me as a no nonsense person,” he wrote the president.
He denied any involvement in the EFCC’s N34 billion allegations against him, saying that, “the truth of the matter is that I do not know anything about the 34 billion naira EFCC is talking about. First, it was N13 billion issue, now it is N34 billion. I am not a signatory to any of the companies mentioned in the said N34 billion case, so I do not know where this one is coming from. I know that God in His infinite mercy will see me through in this critical moment.”
Some observers believe strongly that any arrest and trial of Tompolo is capable of igniting another round of violence in Nigeria’s oil rich and tinderbox region of Niger Delta. Many among the populace in the region adore Tompolo as leader and benefactor. As he led young militants, numbering over 1,500 to surrender their arms in Oporoza in 2009, following the amnesty, it could be recalled that people lined up the streets, singing his praises and adorned vests with the inscription “Tompolo is our hero.”
Whatever may be the twists to it, fact is that the long forgotten blasts on Nigeria’s oil facilities resurfaced, right on the heels of the warrant of arrest of Tompolo. The sabotage was implemented on the Bonny-Okirika crude supply line that services the Port Harcourt Refinery, and the Escravos-Warri crude supply line that services the Kaduna Refinery. The breaches at the moment have forced a closure of both the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries, which according to NNPC, were adding 4.1 million and 1.3 million litres of petrol respectively daily to supply. Further official breakdown shows that the destruction is bleeding the economy N470 million daily.
The special adviser, Media to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Hakeem Bello disclosed last Wednesday that the “sabotaged gas pipeline which contributes to the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline Sysytem has led to a loss of 160mmsfcd of gas daily. At a cost of $2.50 per thousand scf, this loss means about $400,000 loss to the country on a daily basis (N78.8m) in gas volume. This is in addition to losses to be incurred daily from power generation ($1,988,223 or N391, 680) daily. The total daily loss to the country is therefore, estimated at N470, 479,931. Repairs of the damaged pipeline are estimated to cost 4609,137 or N120,000,000.” In the face of all these, an angry federal government has deployed armed soldiers to the Delta region, with a mandate to smoke out those behind the sabotage and bring them to justice.
Newsweek’s Ryan Cummings, chief sub-Saharan Africa analyst at political risk consultancy red24, wrote last week that, “the recent attacks on oil installations give voice to ongoing grievances in the Niger Delta and show that many people are not happy about the instigation of proceedings against Tompolo.”
The magazine further averred that “the coinciding of the arrest warrant for Tompolo—a prominent figurehead in the Niger Delta militancy that besieged the oil-producing country in the mid-2000s—and the resumption of attacks in the region is a worrying sign for Nigeria.”
On its part, the Warri Ijaw Peace Monitoring Group (WPMG) in a statement issued by its chairman, Chief Patrick Bigha, on the heel of the recent explosions on oil installations, exonerated Tompolo from the attacks, while observing that the acts were designed to further set up the former militant leader against the federal government.
“It could be recalled that it was this same Tompolo that was protecting oil facilities in the Niger Delta even though he was not paid for doing that, and so could not turn around to be one that is destroying oil facilities. And as he was doing that, he stepped on many powerful toes, and such people were not and still not happy with him. Therefore, such people can carry out this act and point accusing fingers at him because of the present condition he finds himself in. There is urgent need for the Federal Government to look inward.”
The critical message the group said it wanted to pass is that “the government should look inward to unravel those that are behind this act, as well as make peace with Tompolo so that he will be of great help to the government in managing such situations as well as not to allow the matter to lead to resumption of hostilities in the Niger Delta.
The group reminded that “Mind you, Tompolo is a force to reckon with, in terms of peace building in the Niger Delta region.”
Against speculations that he has escaped from the country, the former militant leader is moving freely in his Gbaramatu Kingdom.
An Ijaw youth, Kingsley Belema, added that those who declared Tompolo wanted know where he is. “They are welcome to go and arrest him, but no one should blame the Niger Delta for the consequences.”
-Leadership