Leader of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND and High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, yesterday, summoned commanders and leaders of the various wings of the militant group to an emergency meeting, tomorrow in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
He did not state agenda of the meeting, but Tompolo, who is the Ibe-Ebidouwei of Ijaw nation, in the invitation, said the meeting, which will hold at Izon House, Yenagoa, was important.
His words, “My dearly beloved Commanders and Leaders of various wings of the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, I greet you all. It is my pleasure to humbly invite you to a very crucial and urgent meeting.”
Tompolo and other ex-militant leaders officially disbanded MEND after they accepted amnesty offered them by the administration of former President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2009.
But, a faction of MEND, which did not accept amnesty continued to operate the militant group and stated their disapproval of Jonathan government, but it was obvious that the moving forces behind the group had abandoned it.
Tomorrow’s meeting is the first time all the former commanders and leaders of the militant group are meeting formally since it was disbanded in 2009, as it was learnt that the situation among former militants in the Niger Delta came to a head on Wednesday, when Buhari threatened to probe the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan over oil theft.
It was also gathered that the leaders of MEND were bitter because of the termination of contracts they were executing for the Federal Government in the oil industry.
Efforts by one of our correspondents to speak with Tompolo on his mobile phones proved abortive as none of his two lines were connected.
But one of his aides, who did not want his name mentioned, said, “Oga dey vex, we will do something very soon to surprise the nation. We cannot be ignored at all; instead somebody is talking about probe”.
The statement calling the ex-militants to the ‘crucial’ meeting was signed by Tompolo.
The Jonathan administration had a few years ago awarded a contract for tracking ships and cargoes as well as enforcement of regulatory compliance and surveillance of the entire Nigerian maritime domain to GWVSL.
The company, which was said to be owned by Tompolo, was expected to execute the contract in partnership with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.
The recently-sacked Director-General of NIMASA, Ziadeke Akpobolokemi, had defended the contract, saying N124bn would be generated for the Federal Government by the GWVSL Before approving the contract, Jonathan had sent a memo to the National Assembly, urging it to discountenance an earlier one submitted by the late Yar’Adua. Yar’Adua, had sought to create a coastal guard, comprising all security agencies, to man the country’s maritime domain.The alleged neglect of the Niger Delta amnesty programme by President Muhammadu Buhari and his plan to fish out oil thieves might have triggered clandestine meetings of members of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta.
One of our correspondents learnt that there had been tension among the Niger Delta ex-militants because of their belief that the President might have abandoned the amnesty programme.
The amnesty programme was negotiated under the late former President Umaru Yar’Adua for militants who surrendered their arms and made themselves available for rehabilitation.
The suspicion of the militants that the President had left them in the cold was said to have been reinforced by non-payment of stipends and training allowances of ex-militants since May when Buhari assumed power.
