•Yes, I’m blameless – Ex-MEND leader
•We all know the bombers
—Chief Ayiri Emami, Itsekiri leader
•We’re responsible for the attacks
—‘General’ Levi 
•We’ll get the bombers — JTF

By Emma Amaize

WARRI- UNTIL  yesterday, former leader of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, swore that he had no hands in the explosions that rocked crude oil and gas pipelines in Delta State, last week. He avowed on his honor as a high chief of Ijaw race.    Tompolo is in fact the Ibe-ebidouwei of Ijaw nation.

*Tompolo

However, not many appear as if they believe his rationalization. Why, the bombs started flying few hours after a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos issued a bench warrant for his arrest over a N34 billion fraud case preferred against him and others by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Before the bombs went off January 14, 15 and 16 tearing apart strategic oil and gas pipelines in Warri Southwest local government area of the state, including the Escravos-Warri-Lagos-Abuja gas pipeline, Tompolo was having a running battle with the anti-graft agency over his refusal to honor its invitation.

The militants used dynamites to blow up the Abiteye Flow Station belonging to Chevron Nigeria Limited, Olero gas pipeline and another from Opuekeba to Dibi in Warri North local government area. The three-day attacks grounded all construction work at ongoing projects in the communities Warri Southwest and Warri north local government areas and forced oil companies to evacuate their workers.

In fact, many concluded that the bombs were Tompolo’s response to the bench warrant. To be candid, he made enemies during the reign of the former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in which he wielded considerable influence and stepped on many toes.

Smelt a rat

Nevertheless, Tompolo said that he got wind of the plan to bomb oil installations and ascribe the criminal act to him. He raised the alarm, same day, the court issued the bench warrant. He said that unidentified persons planned to bomb crude oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta and attribute the havoc to him.

In the statement personally signed by him and published by some national newspapers, Tompolo  raised the alarm about the planned bombing and subsequently fingered a former governor of one of the South-South states, an EFCC lawyer and some All Progressives Congress, APC, leaders in his local government area, who decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Many doubted him   

Some persons argued that the statement could be a diversionary plan by the former militant leader. One of them, an Okerenkoko leader, Chief Michael Johnny, who did not name any body, said,    “I am from the Niger Delta region, I am from Gbaramatu Kingdom, I understand what is going on, my advice to those they are using to bomb crude oil and gas facilities is to have a rethink. They should not allow anybody to use them like before.”

Outspoken Niger Delta activist and business mogul, Chief Ayiri Emami, who joined the Commander of the Joint Task Force to inspect one of the bombed pipelines at Egwa II community, Warri Southwest, on Sunday, also pointed fingers at a known Ijaw militant leader and his boys, adding, “We know the bombers.”

Unknown persons threaten Ayiri Emami

By Wednesday, Emami, who vowed that he was prepared to give security agencies relevant information that would lead to the arrest of the bombers, told Saturday Vanguard that he was receiving death threats from some Ijaw persons for his role in exposing the perpetrators. However, in what looked like a fight back, the Warri-Ijaw Peace Monitoring Group, in a statement by its chair, Chief Patrick Bigha, named an All Progressives Party, APC, leader in a state as the brain behind the bombing of one of the pipelines.

The APC leader, who laughed at the allegation when contacted by Saturday Vanguard, threatened to sue any newspaper that linked him to the bombing, saying, “It is a lie; they are looking for whom to drown with them.” The Minister of Defense, Brigadier-General Monsur Mohammed Dan-Ali (retd.), who visited the state a week after the first bomb went off for on an on-the- spot assessment, said the bombers carried out the well-planned destruction with Improvised Explosive Device, IED.

Mild drama at NNS Delta

Before the Minister boarded the boat for the creeks, the Chief of Defense Staff, CDS, Major Gen. Abayomi Olonishakin, disallowed some officials of the state government from joining the entourage of the Minister to the creeks for on-site inspection at the Nigeria Navy Ship , NNS Delta, Warri,    on grounds that it was a purely military assignment, A military source confided in Saturday Vanguard, “The CDS’s decision was informed by the need to guard against compromising investigations into the incident in the face of conflicting accusations and allegations over who the perpetrators were.”

He said, “Believe me, the military knows that some of those talking loud about the situation and making holier than thou noises know exactly what is happening and could possibly be involved,    so, there is need to be very cautious on assignments as the Defense Minister’s visits.”

Bebenimibo defends Tompolo

In all these, the  Media Adviser to Tompolo, Mr. Paul Bebenimibo, insisted, “Tompolo is innocent, he is a leader, the people dragging his name into the bombing are all envious of him, they want his downfall because he is bigger than them and the only they can do is to plot against him.”He said, “Time will tell if Tompolo asked anybody to destroy anything. I hope you know that before now, he got a contract to protect oil facilities in the state, which he did and stopped oil thieves. They know what he did to frustrate their business and even when government was not paying him, he continued for more than a year until he ran out of funds to pay his workers.”

“So how can such a person go to destroy the same pipelines he was so sentimentally attached to even after he had visited President Muhammadu Buhari and assured him that he would assist government to maintain peace in the Niger Delta when called upon,” he said. Bebenimibo added, “You remember that he raised alarm that some people want to bomb pipelines before they struck. Do you think he would have raised such alarm if he were part of it. I think people should reason when they talk and not just call a dog a bad name because they want to hang it. It is Tompolo today; it will be somebody else tomorrow.”

Group claims responsibility

Strangely, a group of ex-militants, Monday, claimed responsibility for the Delta pipeline bombings. The group, speaking through one of its top leaders, “General” Levi, said they struck because government refused to grant them amnesty. They said they pleaded to the President Jonathan administration to grant them amnesty but government ignored them, vowing that they would only drop their arms when the Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, meets and negotiates with them.

According to Levi: “We are ready to drop our arms and denounce hostility with the government on the condition that the Minister of Petroleum  will meet with us and hear our own side of the story. We are not against the government but we have genuine issues yet to addressed by successive administrations in this country.” “We are ready to commence discussions and denounce association with this present situation. From now henceforth, we are ready to block any channel for anyone not to go through    to bomb oil pipelines,” he added.

Tompolo’s enemies carried out attacks – Riverine Security

On Wednesday, a group, Riverine Security (Coast Guard of the Federation), which claimed to have carried out a fact-finding visit to the creeks to find out who blew up the pipelines, said in a report, that the recent bombing of crude oil and gas pipelines in Delta State,    were carried out by enemies of    Tompolo. Commandant general of the group, Bibi Oduku, said, “We embarked on a fact-finding    on the perpetrators of the recent bombings of the gas pipeline conveying gas from Escravos to Warri, Lagos and Abuja and Cheveron Nigeria Limited’s Utunana-Makaraba Crude oil pipeline; and    measures to quell counter- productive acts like the latest bombings in the Niger Delta.

Oduku asserted, “I visited Gbaramatu kingdom in company of officers of Riverine Security (Coast Guard of the federation), Captain Opuye Odietie and Captain Boro Lala. Most of the residents, popular community and youth leaders the team met confided in us that the bombings were carried out by enemies of Tompolo in order to paint him black in the eyes of the government.”

The group said:  “According to one of the leaders that the team met, Tompolo has enemies everywhere; some of his enemies might have instigated the recent bombings to make him look very bad in the eyes of the government, so that they can do away with him.” Oduku asserted that Riverine Security would discuss its findings with the Special Adviser to the President on the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP,    Brigadier General Paul Boro (retd.) and called on former agitators and youths of the region to remain peaceful and law-abiding.

No retreat, no surrender – JTF

Before he left Warri, the Minister of Defense re-echoed the statement of the Joint Task Force Commander, Major General Alani Okunola that the task force was closing in on the perpetrators, assuring that government would deploy more equipment to the security agencies to ease their operations. His words, “We are yet to get to the perpetrators. The JTF Commander has assured me that they will get to the root of it. That is why we came here, to intensify assistance to the armed forces and encourage them with more equipment to give more and help them bring down this criminality.”

Whether the claims by “General” Levi group of ex-militants and “Commander” Oduku- led Riverine Security are genuine will be determined in due course when the task force uncovers the faces behind the masks.

Tompolo’s whereabouts unknown

At the moment, Tompolo’s whereabouts remain unknown. Efforts by Saturday Vanguard to break the jinx proved abortive, as his kinsmen contacted saw the inquisition as a no-go-area A source close to him, however, said, “Tompolo has not gone into hiding, but you do not expect him to make himself visible to anybody when you know that a court had issued a bench warrant for his arrest.” “He is not the kind of person that goes to party or attends club, so how do you expect to see him just like that? Since former President Goodluck Jonathan lost his re-election hid, he ( Tompolo) has not traveled outside his domain, except when he visited Abuja to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari,” he added

The source added, “He is safe, you know he is not a troublesome person, he is peaceful and wants to help government to bring peace to the Niger Delta region, which he did under former President Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan.” He denied information that soldiers stormed Tompolo’s Kurutie country home and Oporoza, the traditional headquarters of Gbaramatu kingdom in search of him, saying, “That information is not correct, it is not true that they came to  Kurutie in search of Tompolo and that they ransacked his guest house at Oporoza.”

“What happened is that the military came with about 12 gunboats to the jetties of Kurutie and Oporoza and left thereafter, they did not enter the community,” he explained.  In 2009 when the JTF bombarded communities in Gbaramatu kingdom, they did not find him even after they declared him wanted. He came out at his own to accept amnesty in Abuja from the former President, the late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua.