APC Members Behind Attacks On Oil Facilities – Tompolo

Leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (alias Tompolo), has accused the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva and some members of the party in Delta State of sponsoring the attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta region.

Tompolo, who is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for an alleged N13 billion fraud, said those who carried out the recent vandalism of the facilities in the Niger Delta region where only out to smear his name.

The Ibe-Ebidouwei of Ijaw Nation, in a statement addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday, claimed he had no knowledge of the recent hostility.

In the statement which was made available to our correspondent in Warri, Tompolo said: “They are doing this in connivance with an EFCC lawyer, who is also a member of your party; he is at the forefront of prosecuting me because I refused to buy property from him.

“The crux of this letter is to let you know them, that they are dubious, mischievous, desperate, pretentious, manipulative and corrupt, therefore do not share the same vision and mission with you, as well as do not believe in good governance. I will briefly tell you some of their antecedents in this letter.”

Tompolo continued: “I wish to inform you that it has come to my knowledge that the leader of your party and governorship candidate of the APC in Bayelsa State and a few young men from Warri South West LGA of Delta State, who joined the party from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) after the 2015 presidential election, are hell-bent on linking me to the renewed vandalism of oil facilities in the Niger Delta region whereas they are the ones carrying out the acts to smear my name.

“The leader of your party in Bayelsa State approached me shortly after my meeting with you in Abuja, that I should accompany him to meet you and plead for him to be appointed as Special Adviser (SA) and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme Committee, which I refused to do because of his antecedents, as not a reliable and trustworthy person.

“It was thereafter he forced his way into the governorship election of the state, which almost tore the state apart with violence, beginning with the party primaries in which he demonstrated a high level of desperation as was recounted by the chairman of the committee and governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.”

The letter further said: “Mr. President, as for the members of the party from my local government area, Warri South West, they have been involved in illegal bunkering and oil theft activities over the years, which I have been fighting against because of my love for the country. They know me as a no-nonsense person.

“There is this particular one from the same Gbaramatu Kingdom with me who has sworn to kill me because I refused to manipulate the ascension to our traditional stool in his favour when he was not even qualified for it. And so, he looks for any opportunity to deal with me,” Tompolo stated.