Former warlord and commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, Government Ekpemukpolo aka Tompolo says some influential persons are behind the attack against him over the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to him by the federal government.
In an interview with the Vanguard, Tompolo said some big persons in Nigeria are behind oil bunkering in the country.
He also disclosed that he’s not the only one who the surveillance contract was awarded to.
“Like when people are talking about pipeline protection, and they are doing protests in Port – Harcourt, Lagos, and Abuja, I am amazed. Take the contract that I have now, before now, my late friend, Captain Hosa Okunbo, who was from Edo state, was doing the work for the last four to five years; my younger brother who is a king in Niger Delta today was working with Captain Hosa as his operations manager. Now he has his own contract, then Ben Peters and others are still doing this work, if people are coming to protest that I am part of the contract, I wonder what really is happening.
“What I know is that some people are passing behind to sponsor my people against me. If not, there are many contractors on this surveillance job, we are maybe up to four, then calling only Tompolo’s name that we do not want Tompolo, that Tompolo is based in Oporoza and all that, you can now see that if you want to fight corruption, it will fight back.
“I can tell you many big names are involved in oil bunkering, they know that if I am involved, working together with the Nigerian Navy, JTF, DSS, EFCC, many people will not have any place to hide again. Therefore, they passed the other way round to sponsor some of my people against me.
“I have been fighting all these up till today because I know I am fighting the right cause; I do not have any reason to fear anybody, why should I fear somebody that is carrying maybe two, or three guns protesting in Rivers state?
“I think we have many people, traditional rulers, and opinion leaders on our side and we will talk to the people because we are fighting to protect our region. However, if you destroy the economic life of the place, where are you going to protect tomorrow?”