… accuses FG of killing his father, freezing his bank account
A former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Chief Government Ekpemopolo, popularly known as Tompolo, has accused the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari of witch-hunting him because of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Tompolo, in an open letter to Buhari, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent in Warri, Delta State, also accused the Federal Government of ordering the troops of the Nigerian Army to attack his hometown last year, allegedly killing his father in the process.
The former militant leader, whose whereabouts are still unknown, alleged in his letter to the President that the Buhari administration had marked him as the Number One enemy of the Nigerian state because of his support for Jonathan, who is his kinsman.
He, however, vowed that he would not be deterred by alleged government persecution and the act of terror being carried out against his person and communities in Ijaw land by the Buhari administration in his quest to emancipate his people.
He said, “I have been marked as state enemy Number One by the President Muhammadu Buhari regime because of my natural and open association with my kinsman and former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, in addition to my support for Governor Seriake Dickson in the 2016 Bayelsa State Gubernatorial election presumed as against the anointed APC candidate of the Federal Government, Chief Timipre Sylva.
“It would be recalled that in the wake of the renewed hostilities and destruction of crude oil facilities by unknown persons in the Niger Delta region last year, the powers that be now found an ample opportunity to frame me on trumped up accusations and charges. Subsequently, I was falsely and maliciously accused by the Federal Government of Nigeria as the brain behind the then unrest. In furtherance of my persecution, I was accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of fraudulently selling a stretch of land to the government for 13 billon naira.”
In the letter entitled, “Tompolo’s Father’s One Year Remembrance: President Buhari receives fresh powerful message,” Tompolo also accused the President of being responsible for his father’s death, alleging that he “was killed by the Nigerian Army as directed by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria on September 7, 2016.”
He said, “In an orchestrated plot, the Nigerian Army was unleashed on Gbaramatu Kingdom in search of me, and the rampaging soldiers stormed my father’s home in Kurutie Town, physically brutalised him to the point of death. He sustained injuries on one of his legs and due to lack of medical facilities in the area, he could not be treated and could also not be timely evacuated because of the siege and blockade by the Nigerian Army. By the time he was taken to Warri after many days, the doctors advised that the lower limb of the injured leg be amputated due to infection; unfortunately, a few days after, as a result of the physical brutality meted out to him by soldiers of the Nigerian Army, his sustained injuries led to his death.
“Since then, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and the Nigerian Army have not set up any enquiries on the death of my beloved father. Our father’s life was brutally cut short on the orders of President Buhari by soldiers of the Nigerian Army. My family has been painfully deprived of the love of its great Patriarch. The death of my father in the hands of the Federal Government of Nigeria is in tradition of a long list of martyred Ijaws and Niger Deltans, who dare to ask for a better and equitable participation in the management of the oil and gas wealth taken from our very ancestral soil.”
Tompolo further said, “The Ijaw freedom icon, Maj. Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro, the Ogoni rights leader Ken Saro Wiwa and numerous young men and women in the Niger Delta have paid the ultimate price of freedom with their lives. It would be proper to assume that President Muhammadu Buhari now appreciates the value of human life, having been humbled by his recent experiences with ill health, a reminder of the frailty and mortality of human existence.
“God is the supreme arbiter of the universe and each and every one of us cannot escape the karma of divine retribution. While on all of his medical tourism and sojourn in world class medical facilities in the UK, which bills were paid with proceeds ultimately derived from crude oil and gas revenue in my backyard, the mass of the Niger Delta people and Nigerians continue to be denied access to basic health facilities. Furthermore, I wish to use this medium to advise Mr. President to turn a new leaf and seek the true face of God who has given him a new lease of life. His life has been saved while he orders the destruction of others.”
