Ex-Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, has accused All Progressive Congress leaders in the region of trying to link to last week’s attack on oil facilities.
In a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday, Tompolo said APC leaders in Bayelsa and Delta states were after him for refusing to join the ruling party.
Niger Delta militants had on Thursday attacked oil pipelines shortly after the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered Tompolo’ arrest for his failure to appear before the court.
The former militant had been ordered to appear before the court to answer 30 counts of fraud preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Tompolo, however, denied having any links with those behind the attacks on oil installations in Delta State.
He called on Buhari and security agencies to focus the search for vandals on leaders of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa and Delta states, instead.
He also denied having any link whatsoever with the N13bn and N34bn fraud for which the court ordered his arrest.
Tompolo said, “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 in Bayelsa and a few young men from Warri South-West LGA of Delta State, who joined the party from the PDP after the 2015 presidential election, are hell bent on linking me to the renewed vandalism of oil facilities in the Niger Delta region, whereas they are the ones carrying out the act to smear my name.
“The crux of this letter is to let you know them that they are dubious, mischievous, desperate, pretentious, manipulative and corrupt; therefore, they do not share the same vision and mission with you as well as do not believe in good governance. I will briefly tell you some of their antecedents in this letter.
“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 and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme committee, which I refused to do because of his antecedents.”
He added, “There is this particular one from the same Gbaramatu Kingdom with me that has sworn to kill me because I refused to manipulate the ascension to our traditional stool in his favour when he was not even qualified for it. And so, he looks for any opportunity to deal with me.”
One of our correspondents reported that in Gbaramatu Kingdom of Delta State, sporadic shootings were said to have resumed on Sunday while residents of the creek towns fled the areas to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
Although many soldiers trooped to the areas, where some militants were said to have attacked oil facilities in recent days, the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Alkale Usman, assured the residents of safety.
Usman said the police and the military were on top of the situation.
The Joint Media Campaign Centre Co-coordinator of the JTF, Col. Isa Ado, had told journalists in Warri that the situation was becoming precarious, hence the heavy deployment of troops in Gbaramatu kingdom to prevent the breakdown of law and order.
It was learnt that hundreds of ex-militants had returned to the creeks in Warri to prepare for more attacks on oil facilities and security operatives in the areas.
The APC has, however, urged Nigerians to disregard Tompolo’s claim that its leaders are responsible for the attacks on oil installations in the South-South.
The Rivers State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Chris Finebone, described Tompolo’s recent claim on the attacks as mere rambling.
He advised Tompolo to go to court and face the allegations against him rather than trying to play the spokesman for the Federal Government.
The Escravos-Warri-Abuja-Lagos pipeline was bombed by militants around 10pm on Thursday. After the attack, the militants blew up Chevron Nigeria Limited’s Utunan-Makaraba crude oil pipeline at about 10:30pm on Friday. They then proceeded to bomb the Olero gas pipeline in the early hours of Saturday.
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