Why we can’t hand over Tompolo to JTF, EFCC —Ijaw elders, youths
Ijaw elders in Delta State, yesterday, said it was
impracticable for them to hand over the former General Officer Commanding, GOC,
of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Government
Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, to security agencies because they neither have the
power to do so nor know his (Tompolo) whereabouts currently.
They also said that they do not have any information
that Tompolo was involved in the three-day bombing of crude oil and gas
pipelines in the state, while many see the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC’s case against him as a form of persecution.
The Federal Government, last weekend, asked Ijaw
communities to hand over suspects
involved in the bombing, alleged to be hiding in their areas, to
security agencies, while the Joint Task Force, JTF, had earlier threatened to
hold community leaders responsible for further acts of pipeline vandalism in
their communities.
Chairman, Ijaw (Izon) Okosu –Otu (Ijaw Council of
Elders), Delta State, Chief Bare Etolor, said, “It is unfair for the Federal
Government to ask Ijaw communities to handover suspects that carried out the
bombing because we do not know them. In addition, I do not see how anybody
expects us to handover Tompolo to security agencies because we do not have the
power to do that, except they want to humiliate us.”
Another Ijaw leader in Gbaramatu Kkingdom, Chief
Godspower Gbenekame, who re-echoed Etolor’s position, said it was impossible
for them to handover Tompolo to the government.
Some Niger Delta and Ijaw youth groups, including
the Niger Delta Security Watch Organszation of Nigeria, NWSON and Ijaw People’s
Development Initiative, IPDI, threw their weight behind the elders, saying that
the understanding of many Ijaw people was that the government was persecuting
Tompolo because he refused to join the All Progressives Congress, APC.
However, Executive Director of Centre for the
Vulnerable and Underprivileged, CENTREP, Warri, Delta State, Mr. Oghenjabor
Ikimi, said there was nothing wrong in the residents of the affected areas and
ex-militants giving useful information to security agencies to unmask the
culprits.
Vanguard
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