■ His mission
■ How he dislodged Ijaw pirates
■ Why he kidnapped nine expatriates

BY MURPHY GANAGANA

HE was born unnoticed, but celebrated with pomp by his parents who had waited a long time to have a male child after several hopes had been dashed. On the seventh day of celebrating his birth, he was named Oweizide Government Ekpemupo­lo.

The fifth and only male child among his mother’s eight children, his father, Thomas Ekpemupolo, now an octogenarian, named him Oweizide, meaning “I have given birth to a man” in his native Izon language. In a predictive manner, he further gave him ‘Government’ as a middle name, with an assertion that “my son would be a government, a ruler.”

Expectedly, the joy of his mother, Mrs. Sologha Ekpemupolo, was boundless, but the cruel claws of death deprived her from witnessing the manifestation of a ‘Government’ she painfully carried in her womb for nine months, and nurtured for 33 years. She died about 14 years ago, when her son was ascending the ladder of fame.

Born 47 years ago, Oweizide Government Ekpemupolo, now popularly known as Tompolo, grew up an introvert, un-socializing even during his school days at the Oge Primary School, Kunukunuma in Gbaramatu Kingdom, and the National Comprehensive College, a private school in Warri, Delta State, where he completed his secondary education.

The suffocating poverty, neglect and deprivation in the oil-rich Niger Delta region did not afford him the opportunity of a higher education af­ter his secondary school, and he opt­ed to partake in running the affairs of his father’s company, Tompolo Nigeria Limited, which at that time, engaged in sub-contract jobs to oil servicing companies, construction of boreholes and concrete jetties, supply of Automated Gas Oil, also called diesel, to oil firms, among other services, and eventually became the manager of the company.

Contrary to a widely-held belief, Tompo­lo, which has now become an alias for the dreaded ex-Niger Delta agitator, originated from his father’s business venture, Tompolo Nigeria Limited, a coinage of his father’s name, Thomas Ekpemupolo. As the manager of the company, the alias stuck with people assuming that he was the owner.

Though a believer in tradition and culture, the younger Ekpemupolo attends white garment churches regularly, and has no fuss blending Christianity with traditional worship. An unassuming, humble, but fearless person, he enjoys starch, served with fresh fish pepper soup prepared with cocoyam known as ‘okodo’ in his native language, as a favourite delicacy. And this, his wife, Victoria, prepares with utmost diligence. the younger Ekpemupolo attends white

While his father cherished polygamy and is married to about five wives with Tompolo’s late mother as the eldest, the generalissimo of the present day Niger Delta armed struggle married only one woman with whom he has a nine-year-old child, Mary.

A native of Okerenkoko in the Gbaramatu Kingdom of Delta State, his mother hailed from Ogulagha, in Burutu Local Government Area also in Delta. From childhood, he was seemingly destined to suffer the ignoble fate of being born to parents from communities sit­uated in mangrove forests close to theA tlantic Ocean where survival was for the fittest and hope for tomorrow flickered.

But he nursed and sustained a tall dream of reversing the abject poverty and governmental neglect of his kinsmen, who drank even till date, flowing and stagnant salty water from the river and canals where they defecated; the terror of a neighbouring ethnic group whose words were allegedly law up to two decades back, and the trauma of difficulty in providing food for the table; in sneaking at night into the river to fish, occasioned by ethnic domineer­ing and enslavement.

That was his lot till the creation of states and local government by the late General Sani Abacha’s regime, an exercise that led to the formation of deep gullies of bad blood and acrimony among various ethnic groups in the affected areas. At the Warri axis in Delta State for instance, Tompolo’s kinsmen of the Gbaramatu kingdom traded armed tackles with their neighbouring Itsekiris, in a bloody battle that consumed thousands of lives and some villages.

The bloodbath was fueled by the creation of three local government areas in Warri, among them, the Warri South West Local Government, in an area co-habited by the Ijaws of Gbaramatu and some Itsekiri communities, with the headquarters located at Ogbe-Ijoh, an Ijaw town. But the fire was ignited by the sudden relocation of the coun­cil headquarters to Ogidigben, an Itsekiri enclave, when elections into the council chairmanship had been concluded and Mr. Couple Oromoni, an Ijaw who is presently the paramount ruler of the Ogbe-Ijoh king­dom had emerged winner.

Already choked for long over the plight of his kinsmen, Tompolo reportedly took the development as the height of perceived en­slavement by their Itsekiri neighbours, who allegedly worsened matters by attempting to overrun some Gbaramatu communities in an armed invasion. A source who spoke to Sunday Sun anonymously, claimed that in that incursion, his people had no weapons and resorted to using stones and sticks to defend themselves, a situation, he said, prompted Tompolo to draw a line.

“Tompolo felt the attempt by the Itsekiris to enslave the Gbaramatu people must stop. Then a young man, he was not poor, having bought a Mercedes V-Boot car when it was in vogue in the early 90s, and built three houses in Warri, among other properties. In his determination to rescue his people, he sold all his property, including houses and speedboats, to acquire firearms to defend his kinsmen, though not very sophisticated ones, and personally led the battle to flush out the Itsekiris in a very tense battle. This was in 1996.

“As the war raged, the Gbaramatu Ijaws now started clearing Itsekiri communities where there were ma­jor oil tank farms, and by then, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had become president. When the threat to the oil facilities in Delta State starred him glaringly in the face, Obasanjo relocated the Warri South West Local Government Council back to Ogbe-Ijoh, where it was originally situated. That was how Tompolo, a hitherto unknown and quiet person gained popularity for gallantry and leadership acumen.

“The truth is that Tompolo, as a warlord, was a creation of the Itsekiri ethnic group, and his fame garnered with the Kaiama Declaration of 1997 by leading Ijaw activists seek­ing a fair deal for the impoverished communities in the Niger Delta. In that Declaration, it was agreed and directed, among other decisions reached, that all oil companies in the Niger Delta should be shut down. By then, Obasanjo’s decision to relocate the Warri South West Local Council headquarters to Ogbe-Ijoh, had quelled the Gbaramatu Ijaw-It­sekiri squabbles, and Tompolo too had returned to Warri, to continue his business.”

In a separate interview last Friday in Warri, Delta State, Pastor Yerindideke Douglas, who claimed to be a relative of the ex-Niger Delta agitator, said that while the battle over the local government was on, Tompolo ferociously sacked all Itsekiri communities in the Escravos area of Delta State, where most of the multinational oil companies are sited.

According to him, “even when the crisis ended, people that were no longer comfortable with his increas­ing fame and status started making moves to get him arrested, and his weapons seized. In fact, he narrowly escaped arrest on two occasions at that time, and this forced him to relo­cate from Warri, again, to Okeren­koko. While in his village, soldiers were daily visiting the community in search of arms and the people started putting up resistance. This led to some instances of gunfight between the youths and soldiers.”

This, he said, fired Tompolo’s rebellious zeal and propelled him into full-blown militancy. He report­edly moved to a base hitherto used by construction giant, Julius Berger within the Gbaramatu Kingdom, while constructing tank farms for oil firms. Douglas noted that Tompolo’s newly found operational base, which became popularly known as Camp 5, had a jetty and containerized houses which accommodated the ex-agitator and his numerous boys.

“Tompolo moved with his boys as a result of security threats from Oke­renkoko to form Camp 5, to avoid civilian casualities at Okerenkoko due to the daily gun battles with the military. And at that time, the Ijaw struggle had started in Rivers, Bayel­sa and other Niger Delta states, with people like Asari Dokubo and Ateke Tom, springing up. And this led to the proliferation of small arms in the Niger Delta, coupled with incessant ethnic crises.

“This created a new problem, as hoodlums, who were Ijaw boys, started engaging in robbery and sea piracy, attacking market women and men, particularly at the Burutu market, then the commercial hub of Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State. Incidents of violent crimes and criminality became ram­pant in the Delta waterways, with the military seemingly helpless.

“But Tompolo took it upon him­self to clean the mess. In the process, he mobilized two speedboats, went to the scene and a shoot-out ensued. Twenty nine of the Ijaw boys involved in sea piracy and attacks on the Burutu market were dislodged on that day; those he arrested, he handed over to the military.”

Douglas noted that before em­barking on the cleansing exercise, the ex-warlord, presently referred to as GOC in the Niger Delta region had assembled the rampag­ing Ijaw youths perpetrating the atrocities along the waterways, and pleaded with them to desist from their nefarious act. “He even gave them money”, according to a source, but their recalcitrance infuriated Tompolo, and he brutally dealt with them.

He says, “Thereafter, differ­ent groups, which were formed because of the 1996 Gbarama­tu-Itsekiri crises and were stopped by Tompolo, started engaging in illegal oil bunkering, and to proffer a sustainable solution to the Niger Delta debacle, the then President Obasanjo directed the Chief Ndutimi Alaibe-led Niger Delta Development Agancy (NDDC), to find a way of addressing the situ­ation. That was how the amnesty proposal for Niger Delta youths was drafted and submitted to Obasanjo, but it was implemented by the late President Yar’Adua’s administration.

“Prior to that, due to disagree­ments between some Ijaw militant youths and personnel of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) over sharing of illegal bunkering proceeds, they started shooting one another, and the then commander, General Zamani, ordered his sol­diers to attack Camp 5. That was why Tompolo kidnapped the first set of nine expartriates working with Wilbros at Ogulagha axis as a human shield, and not for ransom, but later released them.”

Majority of respondents to Sunday Sun enquiries, posited that Tompolo is the least brutal of all the militant leaders in the Niger Delta. But they are united in declaring that beneath his quietness and humility lies a dangerous trait. “He is like a dangerous snake which doesn’t go out of its way to attack people, but only when provoked.”

Agura Bekeowei, a Niger Delta activist says he is amazed that successive governments apart from ex-president Goodluck Jonathan hold a wrong impression about Tompolo, whom he described as a patriot, philanthropist, and a fighter for just causes, who should be cel­ebrated, rather than being vilified and harassed. “It is of no benefit for the Federal Government of Ni­geria to fight a responsible and law abiding citizen for fears that he is running a parallel government, just because his name is Government. There is nothing like a government fighting another government.”

Source: The sun newsonline

Hmmmm

Ok we don hear. Let him come and answer corruption allegations leveled against him before baba BUHARI smokes him out.

We know this game. It is called Image Laundry. We are not in the 90's. Nigeria has grown past the era where 1 Niger-Deltan miscreant or a local-champion would hold the entire Nation to ransom simply because he thinks he commands an army of over 3000 rag-tag miscreants.

Tell Tompolo that the earlier he reports himself to the EFFC, the better for him. We do not mind if Nigeria goes up in flame in the bid to bring him to justice. A ship can't have two captains.

Akathriel:
We know this game. It is called Image Laundry. We are not in the 90's. Nigeria has grown past the era where 1 Niger-Deltan miscreant or a local-champion would hold the entire Nation to ransom simply because he thinks he commands an army of over 3000 rag-tag miscreants.

Tell Tompolo that the earlier he reports himself to the EFFC, the better for him. We do not mind if Nigeria goes up in flame in the bid to bring him to justice. A ship can't have two captains.

Enough of all this noise.The EFCC,NA and police should quit making online noise and produce Tompolo if they can.

Akathriel:
We know this game. It is called Image Laundry. We are not in the 90's. Nigeria has grown past the era where 1 Niger-Deltan miscreant or a local-champion would hold the entire Nation to ransom simply because he thinks he commands an army of over 3000 rag-tag miscreants.

Tell Tompolo that the earlier he reports himself to the EFFC, the better for him. We do not mind if Nigeria goes up in flame in the bid to bring him to justice. A ship can't have two captains.

What stops the EFCC from effecting his arrest?

Who is Tompolo? The dreaded militant leader

His Mother Died as he was climbing the ladder of fame??
Hmmmmmm #LipsSealed

Tonyebarcanista nightmare....

What a world!!

See lies...
Tompolo u wud rot in jail... Simple.

joychinwe89:
■ His mission
■ How he dislodged Ijaw pirates
■ Why he kidnapped nine expatriates

BY MURPHY GANAGANA





The suffocating poverty, neglect and deprivation in the oil-rich Niger Delta region did not afford him the opportunity of a higher education af­ter his secondary school, and he opt­ed to partake in running the affairs of his father’s company, Tompolo Nigeria Limited, which at that time, engaged in sub-contract jobs to oil servicing companies, construction of boreholes and concrete jetties, supply of Automated Gas Oil, also called diesel, to oil firms, among other services, and eventually became the manager of the company.

Lies everywhere, ur father had such company and u are still complaining dat poverty made u not further ur education... U are a common criminal simple stop lieing to gullible people.