₦airaland Forum

this  question is like asking if some people were born thieves, or born adulterers, or born hemp smokers, or born looters, or born lesbians or even born madmen my friend evil is evil. i don't agree that there is any born gay, it is developed through desire consciously or unconsciously like every other sin, one can also be possesed by the spirit as a result of one thing or the other to believe that one is born gay is to believe that the act can not be cured. In a sense justifying the act and its perpetrators. most gays in African set up are due to one cult or the other. some of us that know history very well can tell you how this so called gay n lesbian started. remember Jesus Christ said in the beginning it was not so.

High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, better known as Tompolo, notable Niger Delta militant, is the target of the Federal Government, which is reeling from sliding oil revenue on account of militancy

At a restaurant located within the Shell Petroleum-operated Osubi Airstrip near Warri, a dark-skinned man in his mid-30s was eating at a table. He is hardly the type that could attract a second look, let alone sustained interest. But he is not a man to be ignored. In fact, he is an important man, as evidenced by the bevy of fierce-looking bodyguards that watched over him as he ate.



Just before he finished his meal, a fairly old man, dressed in traditional Niger Delta regalia, walked into the restaurant. He headed towards the important diner’s table and before uttering a word, sank to his knees to greet the considerably younger man. The diner’s eyes barely strayed from his plate. The old man felt no slight and took no offence. He remained on his knees until he got the attention of the younger man. Even then, the younger man barely looked at the crouching elderly man. Minutes later, the meal ended and the diner got up to leave in a gaudy convoy of pricey SUVs. The important diner is High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, the incumbent militant-in-chief of the Niger Delta.

Unofficially declared by the Nigerian military high command as the most wanted militant in the Niger Delta, following the recent spate of attacks on some key oil installations and the killing of some officers and men of the Joint Task Force, JTF, in the region, Tompolo is widely regarded as a gangland phenomenon. Within the 27 communities that make up what is known as the Gbaramatu Kingdom in the Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, Tompolo is a folk hero. Ordinary people are said to admire him. Those who are close to him are said to be fiercely devoted.Outside Gbaramatu and until recently, he was courted by those in power and feted for his control of illegal trade in crude oil. Barely literate, Tompolo emerged from the bitter Ijaw/Itsekiri conflict. He was the Director of Mobilisation for the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities, FNDIC, a body which played a key role in what most Ijaw nationalists would refer to as the ethnic struggle with their Itsekiri neighbours. While other key FNDIC figures like Dr. Oboko Bello, George Tinimini, Kingsley Otuaro and Kingsley Kuku provided the intellectual underpinning for the FNDIC, Tompolo offered the brawn, largely provided by an army of roughnecks. With his muscle, it did not take him time to become the de facto head of what would emerge as the most formidable bloc within the Ijaw/Niger Delta agitation ring.

In 2006, he organised the kidnap of seven foreigners working for Wilbros, an American oil services company. That action effectively introduced the intractable incidence of kidnap in the Niger Delta. Also with the kidnap came the announcement of the birth of a novel outfit known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND. Taking responsibility for the hostage situation, the group hit the Internet with a plethora of demands as a pre-condition to ensure the release of the hostages. The group took the action as a protest against the bombing of some communities within the Gbaramatu clan by JTF. On its part, JTF claimed that it was executing its mandate of halting illegal oil bunkering by exploding illegal oil barges around the Okerenkoko area. The group also called for the release of Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, who was facing trial for treason, and the release of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, former Bayelsa State governor, who was facing corruption charges.

The government threatened to take military action if the group did not release the hostages. Tompolo simply scoffed at the threat. Entreaties by prominent Ijaw leaders like Chief E.K Clark and Professor Kimse Okoko fell on deaf ears. It took the intervention of associates like Oboko Bello and others within the Gbaramatu bloc to melt Tompolo’s heart. Even the change of heart occurred after two months of negotiation with the state and federal government. The deal allowed Tompolo and his group to carry on with their business while JTF looked the other way. With its new position, Tompolo and MEND ran riot. The freedom of the Delta granted him encouraged others to break free and establish groups for the same purpose. “What happened was that some Ijaw leaders feared that Tompolo and his Gbaramatu brothers were becoming too powerful, so they encouraged Henry Okah, who was just an arms dealer, to take over as leader of MEND,” a source told this medium in Warri. The division within the organisation split MEND along the Eastern and Western Ijaw axis; pro and anti- Tompolo lines. The bitterness was so strong that Dokubo-Asari volunteered to testify against Henry Okah, when he was first charged for treason and gun running. Dokubo was restrained by pleas from Ijaw elders.

The split did not diminish Tompolo’s influence as much as many had anticipated. On assumption of power in 2007, President Yar’Adua dispatched his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, to consult with all the region’s militant groups. It was no surprise that the Vice President’s visit to Tompolo’s Camp 5 was the highpoint of Jonathan’s troubleshooting efforts. Tompolo initially declined to allow the VP access to his domain. He would later change his mind when the VP agreed to meet him only on his terms. One of the terms, this magazine learnt, was that the VP must come as Jonathan, not the Vice President. This implied that the securitymen attached to the Vice President would come into the camp unarmed. The press was also barred. Irked by the conditions, Brig-General Lawrence Ngubane, then JTF Commander in Warri, vowed never to allow “that rascal” ridicule the Vice President. Ngubane threatened to resign his commission rather than allow Jonathan go there unaccompanied. But a compromise was reached and Ngubane accompanied the Vice President to Camp 5. TheNEWS, however, could not establish if he went there unarmed.

Like Jonathan, Emmanuel Uduaghan, Governor of Delta State, also paid a similar visit to Camp 5, observing similar protocol, during a campaign visit to Gbaramatu. Though details of the meeting remain a closely guarded secret, it was safe to assume that Uduaghan’s three-point agenda of peace and security, human capital development and infrastructure development must have been discussed. The governor was not unlikely to have conceded some grounds to the militant leader. It is a plausible view. Straight from inauguration, Uduaghan announced the formation of a Delta Waters Security Committee and appointed George Tinimini, an associate of Tompolo, as its chairman. The philosophy was to allow those ‘bad boys’ who know the terrain take charge of the security. The policy of appeasement continued when Tinimini emerged as Commissioner for Water Resources. That was followed by the enthronement of George Ekpemupolo, Tompolo’s younger brother, as Chairman of Warri South-West Local Government Area. Even the most vocal critics of Uduaghan’s pacifist’s policy would agree that it worked like magic. For about two years, the state remained peaceful. This was in spite of a dwindling share of oil revenue.

All the gains made were, however, lost penultimate week with the alleged killing of some soldiers and two senior officers of the JTF, who were on escort duty. They were said to have been ambushed by some militants believed to be operating from Camp 5. Why did peace snap? Comrade Alex Eyengho, Coordinator of the Warri Interest Group, WIG, blamed it on the appeasement policy. “We welcome the contemplation by the JTF to acquire the captured Camp 5 and use same as an operational base for the military. We have consistently said it in the past that peace would continue to elude the riverine areas of the three Warri Council Areas, and indeed the Niger Delta region, until battle-ready military bases are located in strategic points in the area” he stated. The FNDIC, not surprisingly, differs. According to the Ijaw ethnic organisation, such an arrangement would help actualise the dream of the enemies of the Gbaramatu clan. “The Ijaw of Warri are in the struggle for democracy and equal political space, all of which are issues of reconciliation in the ongoing engagements with the federal and state governments. MEND and their political beneficiaries, especially PDP, should therefore save Gbaramatu Kingdom of a declaration of war,” said Bello. The state government, however, insists that its peace plan remains intact despite the crisis, which it believes is exaggerated.

what is your view

http://thenewsng.com/cover-story/operation-destroy-tompolo/2009/05 (source)

my problem with islam

is that it is a hypocritical edvice

for thieves, murderers, touts etc

n that's why i insist that allah is not God

they are anti peace always looking for uproar in the name of religion

publish it on my email deeveemsee@yahoo.com

comedians too are likewise needed at least to release tension

naigeria na my countryo, bayelsa na my state oh, 1999 i swear i nogo 4getam, , dem don kill dem mama, i think Timaya can help u out

@ zim babe, i want to date you

i am happy nigeria is reaping what it sowed as 4 the notherners dominating the big offices in niger delta should be