I AM not turned out by Mieka Dive Institute at Kurutie, neither am I ABAGIDI the famous diver of Obotebe kingdom, yet from the deep ululating, dancing, clangorous, clattering and kpekekpeke waters of Gbaramatu kingdom I emerge and write today ‘prompted by two items on my table at this moment’ (The Man Died, 1). Wole Soyinka is in tears. This is occasioned by the death of a journalist and a fisherman. On his treasured philosophical positions that ‘Justice is the first condition of humanity’ and that ‘In any people that submit willingly to ‘daily humiliation of fear’, the man dies’ (15), Soyinka sheds tears excruciatingly, stubbornly insensible to comforting words from his colleagues and admirers. His endless tears signal his disgust and rejection of dictatorship and demand for justice – tears that have the character of Ebi Yeibo’s poem ‘When a loved one dies’:

‘For when a loved one dies

Though tears that flood the eyes

Eventually cease to flow,

Those that inundate the heart

Forever remain’ (Maiden Lines, 72)

A Military Governor of the West felt slighted merely from his imagination and ordered the brutal beating of Segun Sowemimo who was a journalist. The result of this brutal beating by soldiers was a progressive deterioration in his condition. On the weight of pressure mounted by Sowemimo’s trade union the military Governor was placed under compulsion ‘to fly him to England’ for medical attention (The Man Died, 13).  By the time he was flown to England his leg had gangrened. Because gangrene had taken over the leg, amputation of the leg became the next medical option.

As an implacable lover of justice and implacable hater of dictatorship,  Soyinka went looking for Sowemimo in London but discovered that he had been taken back to Nigeria. A dependable colleague Soyinka detailed to furnish him with current news of Sowemimo’s condition CABLED him that:  The man died. He was shocked and psychologically devastated by the man that died from the brutal beating in the hands of psychopathic soldiers. This was Soyinka’s first man that died in The Man Died – a journalist over whom Soyinka amassed and deployed the deadliest of his intellectual arsenals to appropriate and bombard all the systematically built structures of dictatorship and exploitation visible in the military days of General Yakubu Gowon.

Soyinka’s tears would have been DABBED and dried, some distance away from Ebi Yeibo’s poem ‘When a loved one dies’ if this archaic, primitive, repulsive trend of brutal beating of principled civilians by soldiers on the order of Governors and Presidents had ended with the death of Segun Sowemimo. This archaic practice of brutal beating of innocent, principled and law-abiding civilians was recently resurrected and brutally extended to Soyinka’s second man  that died – though this Soyinka’s man  was not a journalist like Sowemimo; he was a fisherman, a seaman, a celebrated oral artist, a self-effacing activist, who later developed himself to become a successful businessman. High chief Thomas Osen Ekpemupolo was Soyinka’s second man that died like Segun Sowemimo who died in The Man Died. Would Soyinka amass and deploy the deadliest of his intellectual arsenals to attempt another bombardment of President Muhammadu Buhari government as he did to General Yakubu Gowon some years ago now that High Chief Ekpemupolo had brutally died under circumstances similar to Segun  Sowemimo the journalist?

Gbaramatu kingdom was invaded in 2009. Ekpemupolo’s house and properties worth millions of naira suffered brutal incineration and expropriation in the hands of Nigerian soldiers detailed to pulverize the kingdom. A replication of this vindictive military brutality was experienced again in 2016. Precisely on the 28th of May, 2016 Ekpemupolo’s house in Kurutie in Warri South-West Council of Delta State was desecrated and invaded by Nigerian soldiers on the pretext of searching for Niger Delta Avengers. The 84-year old man was brutally beaten by the soldiers in a manner suggestive of the fact that he was a member of Niger Delta Avengers. Eventually left panting by the soldier, he was hurriedly canoed to Lily Hospital in Warri for treatment. So mercilessly beaten his legs suffered serious injuries; and his part of the vigorous fight to guarantee the survival of Ekpemupolo, his left lower Limb was amputated like the leg of Soyinka’s Segun Sowemimo. On the dawn of 7 September 2016, Ekpemupolo died from complications of his amputated lower Limb after four months of battle for survival in the hospital. The same soldiers who tortured Ekpemupolo in 1968 and conscripted him into the Nigerian Army against his wish came back and vindictively erected the brutal framework that guaranteed progressive deterioration in his condition until he breathed his last breath. As a celebrated oral artist, great story-teller, a believer in the emancipation struggle of Ijaw people, the encyclopedic receptacle of Ijaw proverbs and riddles,  Ghana, Egedege, Christiana, Government, George, Seiyefa and the entire Gbaramatu kingdom have lost iconic personality whose memoirs narrated would continue to inspire positive thoughts in the struggle for emancipation of Niger Delta.

High Chief Ekpemupolo was born in 1932 at Okerenkoko town in Warri South-West Council to the family of Ekpemupolo Lawei of Okerenkoko and Oporoza. His mother Mrs. Derekpemi Lawei was the daughter of late Pa Omoun Boghawei of Kurutie town. His father late Ekpemupolo Lawei hailed from Ibu quarter in Okerenkoko town. Thomas Osen was the last of the eight children Ekpemupolo Lawei had. Thomas Osen was a professional fisherman who carried out his fishing expeditions diligently at Egwa, Saimuzugbene and Ikpokpo communities in Warri South-West Council. Helped by his paternal uncle Odegine Waghan he left the fishing occupation and worked as a deck-hand on vessel Zarama 21 in Mc Dermot Nig. Ltd in 1966. His cousins chief Francis Atiti Mala, late Pa Alugho Keniye and late Chief Abei Mala also worked on the vessel.

Ekpemupolo’s engagement as a seaman on vessel Zarama 21 took him to different countries – Bioko Island (Ferando Poo) in Equatorial Guinea, Cotonou in Benin Republic and Ghana.

When his pockets bulged progressively with wealth from his seaman occupation, he established his own company named Tompolo and Sons Enterprise which later became Tompolo Nig. Ltd was a servicing firm to Gulf Oil Company  Limited (now Chevron Nig. Ltd), Shell Petroleum Development Company and Sedeco Nig Ltd. This company was depended upon by most multinational oil companies for supply of skilled and unskilled manpower. This was the company High Chief Government Oweizide first efficiently managed as a director and became fondly nicknamed TOMPOLO in recognition of his phenomenal managerial skill.

Late Mama Sologha Ekpemupolo (knee Fefamo) who hailed from Kokodiagbene and (in Warri South-West LGA) and Ogulagha (in Burutu LGA) was Osen’s first wife from whom he had his first daughter Chief Mrs. Ghana Pondi. With the passage of time Osen planted a polygamous aginighan tree which grew luxuriantly with constant fertilisation and produced a good number of wives, thirty one surviving children and forty-five surviving grandchildren. High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, George Ekpemupolo (Chairman, Warri-South-West Council) and Engineer Kestin Pondi (businessman), Honourable Julius Pondi (member representing Burutu Federal Constituency, House of Representatives) are his children and grandchildren among many others too numerous to mention.

Ekpemupolo, fondly named PAPATEIKORO and OWOU-DAU (father of children), the holder of the chieftaincy title AMABEBEFIYEOWEI (the mouth-piece and settler of dispute) in Gbaramatu kingdom, the TUNTERIWEI (the one who traditionally crowns the king) in the kingdom, the revered AMAOKOSUOWEI (the oldest man) of Kurutie community, was a great traditional historian and oral artist whose love for his family and the Gbaramatu kingdom was phenomenal. Though he had no formal education, he was a brilliant, intelligent, principled, honest, truthful, sincere, responsible and visionary man celebrated as a great traditional philosopher and SOLOMON of Gbaramatu kingdom and beyond until his SOLDIERS-IMPOSED untimely death.

A phenomenal believer and supporter of AMASEIKUMOR annual festival, it was he who resurrected the BINIZOWEI annual festival in the early 1950s – a festival that often portrays the rich cultural heritage of the Gbaramatu kingdom. His passion for the progress of Gbaramatu kingdom was unparalleled as he breathed Gbaramatu in everything he did. No wonder, his own people recognized his contributions in 1966 and conferred on him the chieftaincy title of AMABEBEFIYEOWEI. As a father, grandfather and community leader, his daily thoughts were perpetually on the emancipation of the Niger Delta from the chains of exploitation. It was in recognition of his PAN-NIGER DELTA VISION that Niger Deltans trooped to his final funeral rites in large numbers on 25 September 2016.

Predicated on a survey of Soyinka’s writings and daily activist engagements, we do not need Aristotle’s syllogism to know that Soyinka is shocked and devastated by Ekpemupolo’s death as a result of brutal beating by the same soldiers who brutally facilitated the death of Segun Sowemimo. Tompolo, George, Julius, Kestin, Paul Bebenimibo, Benike Joseph, Mrs. Timiebi Maika of Akparemogbene and others expected Soyinka in the funeral. He did not monitor Ekpemupolo’s condition; he did not even detail his colleague to look for Ekpemupolo in Warri and CABLE him the deteriorating condition of Ekpemupolo. Even months after Ekpemupolo’s death Soyinka had not bothered to alert the world to the fact that Ekpemupolo was his TREASURED second man that died.

Tompolo was particularly dismayed that they heard nothing from Soyinka their father’s friend, but unknown to Tompolo and the weeping Gbaramatu kingdom, I had long been detailed by Soyinka to look for Ekpemupolo in Warri and ‘send him news’ of Ekpemupolo. The erudite Professor Soyinka, you sent a word to me to ‘trace’ Ekpemupolo and ‘send’ you ‘news of him’.

This is it: High chief Thomas Osen Ekpemupolo died from complications of his amputated lower limb after he had been brutally beaten by Nigerian Soldiers at Kurutie in Warri South-West Council. Therefore, another SEGUN SOWEMIMO the journalist had died in THE MAN DIED.

Ekanpou Enewaridideke, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Akparemogbene, Delta State.