Tompolo to guard oil pipelines - Surrenders 40 bombs, 143 guns - FG to rebuild destroyed houses - Dokubo-Asari rejects amnesty - Ex-militants protest in Bayelsa

From Donald Ojogo, Sylvester Idowu, Okey Muogbo, Soji Ajibola and Rotimi Ige - 06.10.2009

CONTRARY to impressions given, facts emerged on Monday that the acceptance of the amnesty offer of the Federal Government by the ex-militant leader, Government Ekpomukpolo, otherwise known as Tompolo, was with three major conditions, just as the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has rejected the amnesty of the Federal Government.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the government caved in to the demands by the former warlord to engage him and his lieutenants and their boys on contract to provide security for the oil pipelines, wells, as well as oil companies operating in the region.

The argument, according to Presidency sources, was that this would provide stable sources of legitimate income for them and also employment opportunities for some of their disengaged foot soldiers.

“The Federal Government agreed to his demand to be engaged on contract to provide security for the oil pipelines that criss cross the region and that he would use some of his boys for the job. He said this would serve as a strategy to engage some of his boys in legitimate work. I think the President saw reason on this and accepted the demand,” the source said.

The second condition, it was gathered, was that the Federal Government should rebuild his house destroyed during the recent raid by the operatives of the Joint Task Force (JTF) who were searching for some of their missing officers and soldiers allegedly killed by Tompolo boys on May 13, 2009.

Nigerian Tribune further learnt that the third condition that made Tompolo accept the amnesty was the issue of his security which was guaranteed by President Yar’Adua during last Saturday night’s meeting before he finally handed over his weapons the next day.

“He also raised the issue of his security which the President considered as a genuine condition. You know that Tompolo must have stepped on many toes, both within and outside, during his so-called struggle. He again saw the JTF as another threat for what he did against their men,” the source added.

The Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Timi Alaibe, refused to pick his call or respond to a text message on the issue. These are apart from some other reasons Nigerian Tribune gathered why Tompolo accepted the Federal Government’s amnesty.

Highly placed military sources, on Monday, told the Nigerian Tribune that Tompolo’s decision to accept the amnesty offer had more to do with the his wisdom to avoid a major war in the region than the Federal Government’s promise of developing the region after all.

“The young man accepted amnesty, because he knows the consequences his hardline position would have on the region; it has nothing to do with his belief in the promises of government,” the source said.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which regards Tompolo as its General Officer Commanding (GOC), had until Tompolo’s meeting with President Yar’Adua on Saturday, maintained its stance that the warlord was not disposed to the amnesty offer.

The Ijaw Youths Leadership Forum (IYLF), which is regarded as Tompolo’s think-tank, had only a few days to the meeting between Tompolo and the president in Abuja, vowed that the militant leader would never accept the president’s offer.

Another source in MEND hinted that the decision to meet with the president and embrace the amnesty offer was more of a personal decision by Tompolo after his private consultation with a few key commanders like Farah Dagogo and Bibopre Ajube (Shoot at Sight).

The duo were reported to have told him that their acceptance of the offer should be seen as a way of saving millions of lives in the event of a military-militants conflict. This is apart from discoveries that certain unnamed persons at the commencement of the amnesty, had collected several millions of naira on behalf of some commanders, claiming, they (commanders) needed funds to mobilise their fighters to disarm.

Tompolo submitted 143 assorted guns as well as 50 bombs in the following classification: GPMG (16), AK-47 (14) FN Rifles (71) G3 (24) RPG (6), BMG (5), RMG bombs (6), magazines (141), 30 boxes of ammo, AGL bombs (44) as well as several heaps of dynamites.

Until Tompolo’s meeting with President Yar’Adua on Saturday, heralding his decision to disarm, there was tension in the region as residents expressed fears over the uncompromising stance of MEND. This is even as the Joint Task Force (JTF) was poised for what a source called “a decisive onslaught” against unrepentant militants in the region at the expiration of the amnesty on Sunday.

Curiously, Tompolo refused to sign the amnesty denunciation form for repentant militants when he met with the President in Abuja. In place of the form, the militant leader signed a document he had prepared and brought from his Oporoza base on his own letterhead.

Although information on the contents of the document remained sketchy, it contained Tompolo’s own ‘proclamation’ for the acceptance of amnesty.
Said the military source:

“When people blame the JTF as the brains behind killings and destruction of communities in the region, we always laugh because they are ignorant of the workings of the military. We work by orders; no one disobeys orders. If you are ordered by your superior officer to kill even your mother you do it. So why do they blame us.

“The truth is that those who were telling Tompolo not to surrender were doing that because most of them were surviving on him; some of them were pretending to be links between him and government, telling him lies and making money in the process. So they did not want militancy to stop in the region; it was this class of guys that was giving him a false sense of security but he did not know that most of them were already preparing to flee the country because it would have been a full-scale, spare no militant war in the region.

“The JTF was prepared for this task, because we now have a better understanding of the situation than when they ambushed our men; that is just the truth because the nation cannot be held to ransom by a few boys in the name of a struggle, even though some of us from minority areas feel for the people of the region; and that is why I commend Tompolo for his wise decision. I know he knows the implications of risking the entire region to a war. That was why he accepted the offer it was not the promises of politicians at all,” he said.Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that the Federal Government was already considering the presentation of a post-amnesty budget to fast-track development in the region in the next six months.

Against this backdrop, Tompolo is expected to meet with key figures in the amnesty process to facilitate the speedy integration and rehabilitation of ex-militants who disarmed under him. Also to be part of the meeting, are, Ateke Tom and Farah Dagogo.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Front and the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has rejected the amnesty granted by the Federal Government.

In an affidavit sworn to at the Federal High Court Registry Abuja, and served by his lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, and signed by 232 plaintiffs, who are members of Dokubo-Asari’s force, faulted the pardon granted by President Yar’Adua to the plaintiffs and other people, a proclamation widely published in national dailies on Thursday, June 26, 2009.

It stated that it was constitutionally wrong for a pardon to be granted to the affected persons without specification of any particular offence created by an Act of the National Assembly, which the person(s) is concerned with or has been convicted of, for which he is granting pardon.

The affidavit protested the violation of principles of fair hearing and stated that the act of pardon contravened the laws of constitution in unilaterally deciding that the person is concerned with an offence, refusing to state the section of the law the person has breached and unilaterally granting pardon to such a person.

It also questioned the power of the President in exercising his authority to grant pardon to a person under section 175 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria without the person concerned with or convicted of the said offence, applying for pardon to the president.

All 232 plaintiffs argued that they had been wrongly accused and pardoned. They denied being militants, and vowed to continue as freedom fighters with self-determination in line with the United Nations Charter.

In a related development, ex-militants on Monday night took the people of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State by surprise as they embarked on another round of protest, disrupting the free flow of traffic.

The protest, the fourth in its series, came barely 24 hours after the deadline for submission of arms and ammunition by the various militant groups in the region.

The residents around Onopa area in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state were forced indoors as ex-militants took over the street. In order to prevent the situation from escalating into major crisis, security operatives were drafted into the area. At the time of filing this report, normalcy had returned to the affected areas.

The protest which lasted for some minutes, according to Nigerian Tribune findings, recorded no casualty as no weapon was used. A source revealed that the protesters were not militants as being made to believe but a group of boys that were trying to give investors bad impression about the state.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was at the State House, Abuja, on Monday to commend President Umaru Yar’Adua for the successful implementation of the first phase of the amnesty programme which is the surrender of the Niger Delta militants.

National chairman of the party, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, who led the delegation told reporters that the party would hold a rally in Abuja on Saturday to celebrate the surrender and acceptance of the amnesty by the militants.

He also dismissed continued threats from MEND that it would continue with the violence. Ogbulafor also declined to talk on the crisis that has aborted conduct of the party’s governorship primaries in Anambra State, saying that they did not come to the Presidential Villa to discuss the matter with Yar’Adua.

Curiously, Tompolo refused to sign the amnesty denunciation form for repentant militants when he met with the President in Abuja. In place of the form, the militant leader signed a document he had prepared and brought from his Oporoza base on his own letterhead.

Although information on the contents of the document remained sketchy, it contained Tompolo’s own ‘proclamation’ for the acceptance of amnesty.

His people always maintained that he would never accept the "amnesty", so it aint surprising that he took his own proclamation for signing.
Tompolo is a very decent and reliable guy.

Beaf:

Tompolo is a very decent and reliable guy.

Dont bet ya house on it. . . . Tompolo is an illiterate who can easily be influenced to play to his masters tune. . . . if he ends up "guarding the pipelines" as this story says (not sure if its true), will that not bring him into conflict with the next wave of MEND fighters. . . . I hope you would know by now that MEND is not the fighters on the ground, but the people who call the shots in the background. . . .