The oil bandit who calls himself Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, should by now have realized that the game has changed in Niger Delta and that the state pampering enjoyed for his villainy and that of other members of his gang, during the Jonathan years, is over.

If Tompolo does not yet know: this was the message delivered resoundingly in the 28 March presidential election that ousted Goodluck Jonathan from Aso Rock: a message that our much abused nation has had enough of rubbish and was casting its lot with a 72 year old war veteran to turn the page of history.

There is no nation, worth its name that would have tolerated the affront that Tompolo and co were about to inflict on it by their much advertised meeting in Izon House in Yenagoa on Saturday. One expected nothing but a crackdown, which came with truckloads of soldiers from the Joint Task Force, taking over the venue and by so doing, sounding the unmistakable warning that it would not be business as usual.

It should never be any way, as the Nigeria we hope to rebuild under Muhammadu Buhari cannot allow outlaws such as Tompolo co-exist.

Former president Goodluck Jonathan ceded so much space and latitude to the banditry of a few of his Ijaw kinsmen while in power, and in the process emasculated the apparati of the state, such as the Navy and the Army. He unconscionably gave Nigeria’s maritime security to Tompolo and in his last months gave out the security of the nation’s oil pipelines to the militants and the Yoruba group, Oodua Peoples Congress, when Nigeria had security structures on ground to perform such roles. Instead of strengthening the institutions, the former leader, often derided for his naivety, was empowering outlaws. I had never seen anything so anomic in my entire 59 years living in Nigeria.

The ex-militants were so much empowered that they were emboldened in dabbling in the affairs of state. Incumbent Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers had to lobby them in Rivers to support him into power, not surprising the record violence that marred the elections in the state. In Delta state, Tompolo nominated the deputy governor. And in the same Delta, Tompolo and gang demonstrated who was more ‘government ‘ than Jonathan’s presidency, by unilaterally scaring Jonathan from commissioning a multi-billion oil company over location wrangling.

There must be a time for everything. The age of militant licentiousness had ended with Jonathan. It’s time to re-establish the sovereignty of Nigeria over all its territory, from Niger Delta to the Sahelian northeast area where Boko Haram is on rampage.

I am certain, many Nigerians are supportive of Buhari’s plans to regenerate Nigeria, to imbue it with its old values, make it a strong nation all over again.

One was thus worried by the reaction of the Ijaw Youth Council to the JTF response to the illegal, treasonable meeting, dubbing the action as an infraction of the people’s right to assemble and a throwback to ‘military dictatorship’.


There must be a time for everything. The age of militant licentiousness had ended with Jonathan. It’s time to re-establish the sovereignty of Nigeria over all its territory, from Niger Delta to the Sahelian northeast area where Boko Haram is on rampage.

IYC clearly missed the point. Tompolo and co. was not in the class of Adaka Boro or the illustrious writer, Ken Saro Wiwa, the true champions of a better deal to the Niger Delta people. Tompolo and co. are simply oil bandits? And the meeting he had convened was not going to be an ordinary assembly of law-abiding citizens, but a meeting of warlords, who had once earned amnesty from the Nigerian state, and who now wanted to regroup under their old banner. This is nothing but treason.
In my view, President Buhari’s response was apt and appropriate. I even expected the military to have done more, by arresting the gang for having the effrontery to call the meeting, when Nigeria is being steered away from being a lawless Republic.

The Niger Delta ought by now have realized that Tompolo and co. are only champions for their deep pockets. If previous experience is anything to go by, we have all seen how the oil gangsters used the generous government amnesty to enrich themselves. Tompolo and several other warlords acquired private jets and amassed billions of dollars in government contracts and patronage. We have also seen how illogical was government’s belief that oil theft would be reduced by outsourcing maritime security to a company founded by the warlord. From about 100,000 barrels a day, the theft rose phenomenally to 400,000 barrels, about a quarter of Nigeria’s daily production. At the moment, Nigeria is said to have over 200 cargoes of crude oil stranded on the Asian waters waiting for buyers. Most of the cargoes were said to be proceeds of massive theft. Under Tompolo’s watch, it was not uncommon that fully loaded ships with refined products would suddenly disappear from our waters, giving Nigeria, a bad name in sea piracy.

A sign that Nigeria is marching towards change was that significantly, in the month of June, there was no single case of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, according to new statistics by the International Maritime Bureau. This could have happened because the Niger Delta pirates knew that their tolerant, protective father, Goodluck Jonathan was out of power. It could be because they knew the game has changed, that Nigeria is in the hands of people who genuinely want to create a wide departure from the past of state condoned brigandage on the oil fields and the high seas.

* Onanuga is the editor-in-chief of www.thenewsnigeria.com.ng
http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/07/27/news-analysis-time-to-smash-tompolo-and-gang/

Hmmm

Ok

they no born the illiterate terrorist general Daura dullard Buhari well make hin try am

Why are they writing this trash, they should go and smash themselves. All these Southwest writers self. Abi u think say na Una toothless OPC

S waste.

erunz:
Why are they writing this trash, they should go and smash themselves. All these Southwest writers self. Abi u think say na Una toothless OPC

.... Everybody knows SW strategy now, too much media propaganda.... this is 2015, while North has BH to fight for them, SE have IPOD to fight, SS has MEND and others, SW still dey buy pen, while OPC is just pipeline monitors using bow and arrow .... when time reach, sitting and typing on computer will not save them, she na one Nigeria they are fight for with biro and pen...

ok we hear

Haykay80:
The oil bandit who calls himself Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, should by now have realized that the game has changed in Niger Delta and that the state pampering enjoyed for his villainy and that of other members of his gang, during the Jonathan years, is over.

If Tompolo does not yet know: this was the message delivered resoundingly in the 28 March presidential election that ousted Goodluck Jonathan from Aso Rock: a message that our much abused nation has had enough of rubbish and was casting its lot with a 72 year old war veteran to turn the page of history.

There is no nation, worth its name that would have tolerated the affront that Tompolo and co were about to inflict on it by their much advertised meeting in Izon House in Yenagoa on Saturday. One expected nothing but a crackdown, which came with truckloads of soldiers from the Joint Task Force, taking over the venue and by so doing, sounding the unmistakable warning that it would not be business as usual.

It should never be any way, as the Nigeria we hope to rebuild under Muhammadu Buhari cannot allow outlaws such as Tompolo co-exist.

Former president Goodluck Jonathan ceded so much space and latitude to the banditry of a few of his Ijaw kinsmen while in power, and in the process emasculated the apparati of the state, such as the Navy and the Army. He unconscionably gave Nigeria’s maritime security to Tompolo and in his last months gave out the security of the nation’s oil pipelines to the militants and the Yoruba group, Oodua Peoples Congress, when Nigeria had security structures on ground to perform such roles. Instead of strengthening the institutions, the former leader, often derided for his naivety, was empowering outlaws. I had never seen anything so anomic in my entire 59 years living in Nigeria.

The ex-militants were so much empowered that they were emboldened in dabbling in the affairs of state. Incumbent Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers had to lobby them in Rivers to support him into power, not surprising the record violence that marred the elections in the state. In Delta state, Tompolo nominated the deputy governor. And in the same Delta, Tompolo and gang demonstrated who was more ‘government ‘ than Jonathan’s presidency, by unilaterally scaring Jonathan from commissioning a multi-billion oil company over location wrangling.

There must be a time for everything. The age of militant licentiousness had ended with Jonathan. It’s time to re-establish the sovereignty of Nigeria over all its territory, from Niger Delta to the Sahelian northeast area where Boko Haram is on rampage.

I am certain, many Nigerians are supportive of Buhari’s plans to regenerate Nigeria, to imbue it with its old values, make it a strong nation all over again.

One was thus worried by the reaction of the Ijaw Youth Council to the JTF response to the illegal, treasonable meeting, dubbing the action as an infraction of the people’s right to assemble and a throwback to ‘military dictatorship’.


There must be a time for everything. The age of militant licentiousness had ended with Jonathan. It’s time to re-establish the sovereignty of Nigeria over all its territory, from Niger Delta to the Sahelian northeast area where Boko Haram is on rampage.

IYC clearly missed the point. Tompolo and co. was not in the class of Adaka Boro or the illustrious writer, Ken Saro Wiwa, the true champions of a better deal to the Niger Delta people. Tompolo and co. are simply oil bandits? And the meeting he had convened was not going to be an ordinary assembly of law-abiding citizens, but a meeting of warlords, who had once earned amnesty from the Nigerian state, and who now wanted to regroup under their old banner. This is nothing but treason.
In my view, President Buhari’s response was apt and appropriate. I even expected the military to have done more, by arresting the gang for having the effrontery to call the meeting, when Nigeria is being steered away from being a lawless Republic.

The Niger Delta ought by now have realized that Tompolo and co. are only champions for their deep pockets. If previous experience is anything to go by, we have all seen how the oil gangsters used the generous government amnesty to enrich themselves. Tompolo and several other warlords acquired private jets and amassed billions of dollars in government contracts and patronage. We have also seen how illogical was government’s belief that oil theft would be reduced by outsourcing maritime security to a company founded by the warlord. From about 100,000 barrels a day, the theft rose phenomenally to 400,000 barrels, about a quarter of Nigeria’s daily production. At the moment, Nigeria is said to have over 200 cargoes of crude oil stranded on the Asian waters waiting for buyers. Most of the cargoes were said to be proceeds of massive theft. Under Tompolo’s watch, it was not uncommon that fully loaded ships with refined products would suddenly disappear from our waters, giving Nigeria, a bad name in sea piracy.

A sign that Nigeria is marching towards change was that significantly, in the month of June, there was no single case of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, according to new statistics by the International Maritime Bureau. This could have happened because the Niger Delta pirates knew that their tolerant, protective father, Goodluck Jonathan was out of power. It could be because they knew the game has changed, that Nigeria is in the hands of people who genuinely want to create a wide departure from the past of state condoned brigandage on the oil fields and the high seas.

* Onanuga is the editor-in-chief of www.thenewsnigeria.com.ng
http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/07/27/news-analysis-time-to-smash-tompolo-and-gang/

u sef no dey shame to post dis tin?

I do not have anything against self determination or campaign for fairness. However when such campaigns are hijacked by criminals, then all bets are off.
Is tompolo more qualified to speak on behalf on his people than professor itse sagay?

Why won't people like Tompolo erupt like a volcano when there's so much inequality in the land.

How many of his kinsmen from Okerenkoko or Gbaramatu can you find working in multinationals operating in their territory?

You keep hearing comments like: "dem no dey go school..."

It is only a matter of time before all these inequalities will be addressed.

Your father would be smashed first before anyone else. Let buhari try it and let's see if Nigeria will not boil.

Rubbish news analysis.

I don't like the amnesty, but u can't take it away, why not try first.

RUMBLINGS FROM THE CREEK...and gentle whispers of true leaders By Ena Ofugara

Only a fool will ask a man to drop his gun and not guarantee he gets his meals regularly. Except you plan on killing that man, or you have built a cell to keep all like him, including children born that will be like him, then you must ensure he...or majority like him have food. Anything short of this is to ask him....force him to pick up a gun again.

Those who folow this page will never see me criticize amnesty for Boko Haram. Much as I detest those bloodsuckers, I am realistic enough to know that a lion that has tasted human flesh is never allowed to be a circus lion. I know the power the Boko Haram leaders and youths have, being able to plunder and rape and blackmail and rule. Expecting them to put down their arms and go back to being shoemakers and cattle rearers without some sort of supplementary moneys, is wishful thinking. It is in this regard I watch closely Buharis moves to offer amnesty to Boko Haram.
Yes Buhari in his that campaign of APC where they promised to chop the sun up and give each Nigerian its energy on a plate, had criticized GEJ for attempting to negotiate with Boko Haram. In his now famous tough talks, he said "Boko Haram do not want peace, else they wil not kill 13000 (thirteen thousand) people". That statement however is the closest to the truth from my standpoint. Goodluck Jonathan would have handed them whatever if only they would stop killing. However, when people claim to kill for God, what can man offer them in exchange? Therein lies the major difference with the Niger Delta militants

The Niger Delta militants do not do what they do claiming a call from God. It is purely a fight for fairness. Yes people have become tone deaf to their plight. I hear the thoughts of many Nigerians not from ther, totally believing that they are the aggressors. That is sad sad sad. Comparing a people who cannot till their soil because the soil is dead for one thousand years, who cannot fish because the waters are forever polluted, who cannot breathe clean air as asthma and OCPD and wheezing breath is their lot as the air is filled with all kinds of chemicals...and still they cannot find jobs even in these companies,...companies dominated by Yorubas and Hausas and some Igbos, wealth spirited away to build ABuja, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna and the rest of Nigeria...yet people would call actions by these people "militancy, terrorism, treason, etc etc" . I even called it "militancy"

I have asked people what Boko Haram wants. I Ena Ofugara as a Niger Deltan can answer for my brother Mujahid Dokubo-Asari and say FOOD. They want FOOD. They want their homeland repaired. They want hospitals. They want Oloibiri where oil was found and which till date has no good hospital or road or water to drink, they want what you have in Lagos and Kano. However they can never get Oloibiri back because there is no more oil in that dead city in Bayelsa. It is dead forever.A thousand years must pass before the spilled oil can decay and form soil once again.

So I have answered what my people want. What does Boko Haram want?

While what my people want removes nothing that is yours from you, Boko Haram asks that I accept Allah? And that the Allah I accept must be a particular teaching? Is that what a people should desire and fight and murder over in this century?

I STAND PROUDLY TO DEFEND THE NIGER DELTA STRUGGLE, CAN YOU PLEASE DEFEND BOKO HARAM'S? What gargantuan idiocy leads men to equate both?

God bless Yar"Adua. Maybe like you, he had become tone-deaf and apathetic to the cries of the Niger Delta, cries first made by Adaka Boro which made Adekunle the scorpion to murder him; cries echoed by Saro Wiwa and the murdered Ogoni nine...murdered by Abacha, Yet the intellect of this consummate academic and pride to Fulani, He was smart enough to know these words rang true

"If you think peace is expensive, try war"

It takes some kind of a lack of true intelligence not to realize that whatever Tompolo and co are getting is inconsequential when juxtaposed with the destruction of all tank farms and oil facilities and human life....Hausa Igbo Yoruba, Oyibo, Niger Delta. He knows that amnesty represented the singular most brilliant move by any Nigerian leader. He knows that these militants are actually not the people stealing Nigerian crude. He knows Asari and Ayiri and all these Niger Delta warlords are Muslims because 99 percent of oil thieves are Hausa-Fulani and the army boys who took coups...Northerners and some allies in Yorubaland and Middlebelt/North Central. He from his grave would have seen that AL Mustapha went to visit Asari Dokuboh even before he went home or maybe soon after. WHY?

The Niger Delta militants are but boyboy to some true billionaires who have the contact to speak with countries to buy stolen crude. What president has Boyloaf spoken to? Is it not recently if ever he has come to the US? Who will teach him the French to sell to French refineries?

However, Buhari in his usual lack of intellect and strategy, same lack of strategy that cost him his Presidency in 1983, has again decided to absolve his Northern people of complicity in oil theft. It is the boyboy ship followers and miners that he has decided to show military mightwith. He has sent the planes up and killed once. WHAT STRUGGLE HAS BEEN ENDED BY KILLING ALL ADVERSARIES? Even the great Roman Empire negotiates and allows for Barbarians to have a few lands to themselves. The little moneys given Kuku to train ex militants...NIGERIANS is what is the PAIN of very evil people now.

SO THEY ADVISE BUHARI TO GO KILLING. Now let us assume that our army is so equipped and trained and invincible. Let us assume the creeks are mapped and easy to navigate. IS IT THE RIGHT THING TO KILL THESE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT KILL YOU? Is it not better to readdress the AMnesty Program, remove thieving hands and ensure it gets to the youths and women and children of that area? Is it to throw away the child and the bathwater?

"KILL KILL KILL" they tell Buhari. But they forget that our army is not exactly that of GENERAL PATON. They forget that this time it will not be warning shots but actual total destruction of the oil facilities and killing of expatriates. They forget that the army cannot guard the facilities from five people with the type of rocket launchers we saw being returned during amnesty. They do not calculate the costs. The army that could not protect Nigerians where trees are low and land dessert, is expected to protect amidst thick vegetation and rivulets and streams where navy boats can run into sand from not knowing the water.

Growing up in Sapele, I have stood and watched teachers like @Leleji of Okotie Eboh allow to students to fight till one dies. One thing I have noticed in all of these fights, even when you punch a mans teeth in, the teeth injures your knuckles. Very silly...usually Yoruba boys online come and make such pseudo-intellectual comments calling for the fight against militants. These people are the type that do not think things through.

Again I ask, why is Buhari's approach to militant payment and the Niger Delta not one of vetting the program and payments and making it better? HOW CAN HE BE OFFERING BOKO HARAM AMNESTY AND TAKING AWAY THE ONE OF THE NIGER DELTA WHOSE LANDS HAVE THE OIL? Is it because Niger Delta is part of the 5 percenters and Boko Haram 97 percenters?

Quote me on this NIGERIA WILL REGRET ANY ACTION THAT MAKES VIOLENCE AND WAR THE LEADING WAY TO DEAL WITH THE NIGER DELTA.
I say this again "Aside that it is evil and unfair, aside that the Nigerian army cannot protect the oil facilities and the damage will ruin the economy FINALLY, aside that Chevron Schlumberger and all will go home easily this time, as they will be blamed for every death and their corporate image cannot stand it in this age of social media, (SHell has already sold of all it owns on land) AMERICA AND RUSSIA WILL GLADLY BAN NIGERIAN OIL AS NOW NIGERIA IS COMPETITION TO THEM SINCE THEY HAVE BECOME OIL SELLERS TOO.

Those who follow this page and who disagree with me often like Chuks Dickson Uwagboi will remember when I said the price of oil will plunge and America will become sellers. That was four years ago and he Dickson asked for the article at the beginning of the oil price crash. Buhari in contras says the fall of oil price was "UNEXPECTED". Truth is that at this point, a lot of us younger men stand to know a lot more than these old men who lead. We follow events more closely and the books we read now is different from the books they read. So when we settle down to write, despite our bias, people should pause and say "there is sense even in nonsense". Here I repeat NIGERIA WILL REGRET AN ARMED CONFRONTATION WITH A UNITED NIGER DELTA.

Here is another plausible scenario. Boko Haram continues battling the Nigerian army from the North. Niger Delta Militants begin serious bombing from the south south. Biafra and their very ready youths see a weakened Nigerian army and take full advantage. WHAT HAPPENS? Is this possibility too far fetched? Boko Haram is already fighting. Tompolo is already calling for meetings of ex warlords, 70 percent of Igbos are tired of this contraption called Nigeria. SO IS THE ABOVE SCENARIO SO FAR-FETCHED?

But there exists calm voices of reasons, ALL COMING FROM PDP who have successfully held the country together for 16 years. Many people tink the Federal Government blocking a venue is the same thing as stopping a meeting. The stupidity astounds. Generals who own boats and can meet in the high seas or in the middle of Bayelsa unanounced, some people think barricading a building is problem solved. These calm voices have come from Goodluck Jonathan. It has come from Okowa, I am sure having made a call to Ibori intimating him of the needless eggshell situation brought on by a leader unaware of present-day reality. A leader still caught up in the idiosyncrasy of the 80's and early 90's. The Seriake Dickson and Alamieseighas and all Niger Deltans including Udom Emmanuel and Godswill Akapabio have all come to these boys to take it easy. They have said they will update the old man president and show him the folly of his actions and plans.

YES Unlike the Northern leaders who encouraged Boko Haram with words like "boko haram will never end until Jonathan leaves" and "Boko Haram are freedom fighters", these excellent statesmen from the Niger Delta, men well schooled academically and who can see clearand present danger to all concerned, these men have said they will talk to Buhari.

If you think peace is expensive, try war.

May God save us all.

I laugh when I see the vituperations of those pretending to be mórons. I say pretending because it's almost impossible to be that stupid except you were born that way. Was the author born that way ? I can never tell.
All of a sudden, boko haram have been hitting choice targets at will with virtually no resistance from the Nigerian government. Nnamdi Kanu and the Biafran agitators have been broadcasting treasonable messages on fm bandwidths with Nigerian authorities impotenţ on what to do or how to go about it BUT when it comes to my people, you will másturbate in glee and tell them "no, you guys should not talk to each other" even though the constitution allows for freedom of association. But then again, as I've said severally we are practicing a democratic dictatorship and that will be my stance until further notice. I only blame fóols like E.K Clark and King A.J Turner for putting us in this mess.

Long live the Ijaw man
Long live Federal Republic of Nigeria

PS; keep your insults to yourself or argue with your ancestors.

excusemyfrench:
Your father would be smashed first before anyone else. Let buhari try it and let's see if Nigeria will not boil.

See mumu, asif Edo ppl wud join in the fight.
U think war is by exporting Edo girls to Italy?

lygn19:

See mumu, asif Edo ppl wud join in the fight.
U think war is by exporting Edo girls to Italy?

look at this goat. Edo people are part and parcel of the people who make up the south south and not igbos whose history in the south south is well known. You came as refugees running from the bullets of the Nigerian army and that's how you landed in South south.

Oya nice idea

Tompolo and other militants should live with the reality of March 28.

excusemyfrench:
look at this goat. Edo people are part and parcel of the people who make up the south south and not igbos whose history in the south south is well known. You came as refugees running from the bullets of the Nigerian army and that's how you landed in South south.

Edo people are part and parcel of d north, go and check ur history, u came as refugees running from Biafran bullets and fulani invaders, very soon d real ss ppl wud chase u and ur sisters back to Italy .

lygn19:

Edo people are part and parcel of d north, go and check ur history, u came as refugees running from Biafran bullets and fulani invaders, very soon d real ss ppl wud chase u and ur sisters back to Italy .

Hahaha. Edo has never been a northern entity. Look at this mumu. Ph? So you are no longer claiming lagos it's nw ph? I really pity your worthless akpu tribe. You came as refugees to south south and you're calling someone a refugee. Check history and you'll know Edo. We were conquerors unlike you guys who never conquered a palm tree. Check the rate of prostitution in Nigeria. Igbos have a larger percentage.

excusemyfrench:
Hahaha. Edo has never been a northern entity. Look at this mumu. Ph? So you are no longer claiming lagos it's nw ph? I really pity your worthless akpu tribe. You came as refugees to south south and you're calling someone a refugee. Check history and you'll know Edo. We were conquerors unlike you guys who never conquered a palm tree. Check the rate of prostitution in Nigeria. Igbos have a larger percentage.

Lol... look at how u are ranting up and down over few words.
Oil thief claiming southsouth because of oil , u won't go and harness ur Italian resources... .

Haykay80:
The oil bandit who calls himself Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, should by now have realized that the game has changed in Niger Delta and that the state pampering enjoyed for his villainy and that of other members of his gang, during the Jonathan years, is over.

If Tompolo does not yet know: this was the message delivered resoundingly in the 28 March presidential election that ousted Goodluck Jonathan from Aso Rock: a message that our much abused nation has had enough of rubbish and was casting its lot with a 72 year old war veteran to turn the page of history.

There is no nation, worth its name that would have tolerated the affront that Tompolo and co were about to inflict on it by their much advertised meeting in Izon House in Yenagoa on Saturday. One expected nothing but a crackdown, which came with truckloads of soldiers from the Joint Task Force, taking over the venue and by so doing, sounding the unmistakable warning that it would not be business as usual.

It should never be any way, as the Nigeria we hope to rebuild under Muhammadu Buhari cannot allow outlaws such as Tompolo co-exist.

Former president Goodluck Jonathan ceded so much space and latitude to the banditry of a few of his Ijaw kinsmen while in power, and in the process emasculated the apparati of the state, such as the Navy and the Army. He unconscionably gave Nigeria’s maritime security to Tompolo and in his last months gave out the security of the nation’s oil pipelines to the militants and the Yoruba group, Oodua Peoples Congress, when Nigeria had security structures on ground to perform such roles. Instead of strengthening the institutions, the former leader, often derided for his naivety, was empowering outlaws. I had never seen anything so anomic in my entire 59 years living in Nigeria.

The ex-militants were so much empowered that they were emboldened in dabbling in the affairs of state. Incumbent Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers had to lobby them in Rivers to support him into power, not surprising the record violence that marred the elections in the state. In Delta state, Tompolo nominated the deputy governor. And in the same Delta, Tompolo and gang demonstrated who was more ‘government ‘ than Jonathan’s presidency, by unilaterally scaring Jonathan from commissioning a multi-billion oil company over location wrangling.

There must be a time for everything. The age of militant licentiousness had ended with Jonathan. It’s time to re-establish the sovereignty of Nigeria over all its territory, from Niger Delta to the Sahelian northeast area where Boko Haram is on rampage.

I am certain, many Nigerians are supportive of Buhari’s plans to regenerate Nigeria, to imbue it with its old values, make it a strong nation all over again.

One was thus worried by the reaction of the Ijaw Youth Council to the JTF response to the illegal, treasonable meeting, dubbing the action as an infraction of the people’s right to assemble and a throwback to ‘military dictatorship’.


There must be a time for everything. The age of militant licentiousness had ended with Jonathan. It’s time to re-establish the sovereignty of Nigeria over all its territory, from Niger Delta to the Sahelian northeast area where Boko Haram is on rampage.

IYC clearly missed the point. Tompolo and co. was not in the class of Adaka Boro or the illustrious writer, Ken Saro Wiwa, the true champions of a better deal to the Niger Delta people. Tompolo and co. are simply oil bandits? And the meeting he had convened was not going to be an ordinary assembly of law-abiding citizens, but a meeting of warlords, who had once earned amnesty from the Nigerian state, and who now wanted to regroup under their old banner. This is nothing but treason.
In my view, President Buhari’s response was apt and appropriate. I even expected the military to have done more, by arresting the gang for having the effrontery to call the meeting, when Nigeria is being steered away from being a lawless Republic.

The Niger Delta ought by now have realized that Tompolo and co. are only champions for their deep pockets. If previous experience is anything to go by, we have all seen how the oil gangsters used the generous government amnesty to enrich themselves. Tompolo and several other warlords acquired private jets and amassed billions of dollars in government contracts and patronage. We have also seen how illogical was government’s belief that oil theft would be reduced by outsourcing maritime security to a company founded by the warlord. From about 100,000 barrels a day, the theft rose phenomenally to 400,000 barrels, about a quarter of Nigeria’s daily production. At the moment, Nigeria is said to have over 200 cargoes of crude oil stranded on the Asian waters waiting for buyers. Most of the cargoes were said to be proceeds of massive theft. Under Tompolo’s watch, it was not uncommon that fully loaded ships with refined products would suddenly disappear from our waters, giving Nigeria, a bad name in sea piracy.

A sign that Nigeria is marching towards change was that significantly, in the month of June, there was no single case of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, according to new statistics by the International Maritime Bureau. This could have happened because the Niger Delta pirates knew that their tolerant, protective father, Goodluck Jonathan was out of power. It could be because they knew the game has changed, that Nigeria is in the hands of people who genuinely want to create a wide departure from the past of state condoned brigandage on the oil fields and the high seas.

* Onanuga is the editor-in-chief of www.thenewsnigeria.com.ng
http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/07/27/news-analysis-time-to-smash-tompolo-and-gang/

Hogwash by those born during facebook generation. They should ask their parents to brief them how life was when the creeks were boiling. Bubu sef knows

excusemyfrench:
look at this goat. Edo people are part and parcel of the people who make up the south south and not igbos whose history in the south south is well known. You came as refugees running from the bullets of the Nigerian army and that's how you landed in South south.

That guy do not represent we Igbos

WhiteTechnology:


That guy do not represent we Igbos

U re scared of an ordinary Edo state person.
Go tru his posts then mk ur conclusion.