Forover seven years, some influential Nigerians, including Niger-Delta natives, pushed the former leader of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, out of contention in the oil-rich region.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, shortly after President Muhamadu Buhari took over power in 2015 declared him wanted in a case of conspiracy, illegal diversion of N34 billion, N11 billion, and N900 million belonging to the Nigerian Maritime Administration Security Agency, NIMASA.

It was not the first time security agencies in the country proclaimed him wanted, the Joint Task Force did in 2009 for the fortuitous killing of some soldiers.

However, last year, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos found the allegations EFCC leveled against him to be fallacious, acquitted, and discharged him.

Tompolo bounced back to public computation, last month, when the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPC Limited, after security checks, awarded a multi-billion naira pipeline surveillance contract to five different companies, two of which he has an interest in the Niger Delta. They pay the companies per kilometer of pipeline based on performance.

Some supposed militant factions threatened the Federal Government, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, over the contract to the said companies, but specifically, mentioned Tompolo. NNPC Limited boss, Kyari, defended the deal, saying the need to involve “private contractors to man the right of way to these pipelines” informed the deal.

Ondo state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN knocked the Federal Government on the contract, but his Delta state counterpart, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, who understood the real reason for the contract, commended the Federal Government and NNPC Limited for listening to his earlier call to award pipeline surveillance contracts to capable community stakeholders and contractors in the affected areas, including Tompolo.

Saturday Vanguard has it on good authority that before NNPC Limited awarded the contract, the relevant officials briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to get Tompolo involved, and he gave his nod.

Tompolo went into business two days fter putting pen to paper with NNPC Limited. He has been putting heads together almost ondaily basis at Oporoza, traditional headquarters of Gbaramatu kingdom, Warri South-West local government area, Delta state. He has met with traditional rulers, community leaders, and stakeholders from across six states of Niger Delta on how to protect oil pipelines.

One day, over 10,000 youths, including cult members and oil bunkerers, converged on Oporoza for a heart-to-heart talk with him on his new contract and the need for everybody involved in oil bunkering to disengage.

Saturday Vanguard visited Oporoza, Tuesday, and observed a tightly packed security as the speedboat that conveyed our team and some Tompolo aides from Warri steered into the community. Undetected eyes at strategic checkpoints screened visitors with a bold sign warning that any speedboat that did not slow down will pay N10, 000 fines.

The traditional shrines with the buildings painted white, which Tompolo, a traditional worshipper, had modernized conspicuously stood out in Oporoza landscape.

His air-conditioned apartment is easily noticeable among other buildings on Palace Road, the street tarred by the Okowa administration. JTF targeted and bombed the house, the palace of the monarch, and others in 2009 during the manhunt for Tompolo, but he had since rebuilt it.

A flurry of meetings was on when we arrived at about noon and visitors from Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo, Ondo, and Delta states were waiting to see him, including Ijaw musicians from across the region.

The moribund MEND leader spotting a trouser and shirt with a face cap popularized by Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan (former governor of Delta state) came out from one meeting and on sighting Saturday Vanguard, he bellowed as he extended his hands for a tepid handshake, “Ah, ah, Emma, you are here, welcome”. Excerpts:

When people hear your name Tompolo; what comes to mind is that Niger-Delta warlord, some even call you oil bunkerer; asking what is he doing with protecting oil pipelines, is he a security official?

Everybody knows about Tompolo, while many people will say that Tompolo was a militant, some will say he was an ex-militant carrying arms, and some people say Tompolo is still a militant. However, before even I became a freedom fighter, I was a young man working with my father as a businessperson. I am not an oil bunkerer; I actually understand how to do business, not to carry arms to survive.

At a time, the Joint Task Force in Niger Delta declared you wanted, soldiers looked for you everywhere and bombarded many places, they did not find you, some people said you had escaped out of the country, where did you hide?

Which of my declarations as a wanted person are you talking about, is the one of 2009 or the last one?

Let us start with the one of 2009

You know when somebody is fighting a genuine cause; you have nothing to fear; I was in my place by the grace of God, the Almighty God, and the ancestors of our lands were protecting me. Therefore, even if I am here with you, if you do not have good intentions about me, you will not see me. I was here throughout (referring to Gbaramatu Kingdom) I did not go anywhere because the land I came from protected me.

The Federal High Court in Lagos finally found you not guilty and discharged you, last year, on the allegations of fraud laid against you by the EFCC, which declared you wanted another time. Why were you a target after the current administration took power?

Even you, Emma Amaize, know what transpired then. It was all about politics; we were fighting for former President Goodluck Jonathan, while others were working for All Progressives Congress, APC, which is President Muhammadu Buhari, who later won the election in 2015. That was why the opposition party, the present ruling party haunted us, if not, everybody, every Dick and Harry understands that there was nothing against Tompolo, it was just politics,witch-hunting. That was why my lawyers went to court, presented my case, and in the end, the court discharged and acquitted me,that there was nothing against me. It was just political witch-hunting.

Before the court finally discharged you, security officials guarding some security equipment that you purchased for a security contract you were handling, stole the items at a locationin Warri, have you recovered the stolen items?

We are still working on that; we had this security contract with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Security Agency NIMASA, where we had a lot of security vessels protecting the Nigerian territorial waters, we even extended as far as Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Benin to sanitize their waterways, which everybody, home and abroad was aware of. We had a Public Private Party, PPP, arrangement on no cure, no pay basis when they declared me wanted with my people in Lagos, Warri, and everywhere.

That was when they took away many of these vessels, now that we had won the case in court, gradually, I think we will get everything back. Like the ones in Warri, which were under the custody of the Nigerian Navy, in stealing all these things, I think they even caught some of them. It is a security matter, so I want to stop here.

They pressured you for a long time from information available to us to accept the current pipeline surveillance contract that is generating debate, why did you accept it, we hear that the pressure was on for close to two years or over a year, how true is this?

You know, Emma Amaize, we do not have any other place to call our country, this is the only place we have, this is the only country we have. In addition, whether we like it, today, you are seeing a tarred road in Oporoza, the traditional headquarters of the Gbaramatu Kingdom, where you meet me, Okerenkoko and other riverine communities in Bayelsa State, and everybody knows that the Nigerian maritime sector is the key to the success of this country.

Now that illegal activities are going on, involving many people, not just only the people of Niger Delta, the Federal Government, and every well-meaning Nigerian understands that there are people who have the capability and understanding, especially the terrain, to handle this work without causing trouble, which I am one of such persons.

During the time of former President Umaru Yar’Adua, I worked together with our former governor in this state, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan. I went overseas with him, brought in Israelis, and prepared a security contract from Rivers state to Edo state. It was even our late brother, former Chief of Army Staff, General Owoye Azazi (late) that even said no, Tompolo would not handle the contract alone because a lot of persons as we were talking then, were all bunkerers. Therefore, there is no way you will give a contract to somebody that will not do the work and, use the work to protect his own illegal activities.

That was when, specifically, the part of Rivers state went to Ateke Tom, Alhaji Dokubo Asari, Farah Dagogo, and some others. In Bayelsa, Boyloaf, Josshua, Africa, and others got it. It was only in Delta state that they split the contract between Ijaw and our Itsekiri brothers. We did the job and I believe NNPC knows who actually did the work then.

If you want to protect our oil pipelines and stop oil-bunkering activities, they know the people that have the ability and capability, to work with security agencies that can stop oil theft because we had done it before in Lagos and the Republic of Benin.

That was why when they came; I know that if we actually want to survive as a nation; we have to contribute our quota. I have to put my annoyance and the trouble that I faced aside for us to work together to bring up the oil production of this country. As we speak, Nigeria is our country, which is why we agitate we cannot be second-class citizens and that our people should get whatever is due to them.

When you said we did it in Lagos and the Republic of Benin, do you mean you handled a security contract on pipeline protection and performed creditably in these places?

Yes, everybody is aware, and you can go back to the records and check

Our information is that top ex-militant leaders are involved in oil bunkering, so how are you going to tackle them because they are your friends and what is your appraisal of what has led to an increase in oil theft in the country?

We can handle it perfectly, if you look at our environment, our people’s means of survival is fishing, but while people are doing this illegal bunkering, there is no more work for them because it has affected the fishing. Therefore, they have no means of livelihood and our people want their means of livelihood back. Even in federal and state governments, only a few people from our fishing communities have employment, so when you see people coming from outside the country, taking away something from your place, what our people now do is to help them, assist them in the bunkering.

The people getting the bulk of the money are not our people and while doing that, the level of damage they cause to the ecological life of our people is massive, and that is what we are trying to stop. So, we will talk to our people and sensitize them that if you are getting one naira today, the damage it will cost tomorrow is up to N30; that is the area I will now follow to talk to my people and in the end, we will agree and they will leave oil bunkering. We expect the federal government will provide the needful so that our people will survive because we own the oil and our people must be part of the parcel of the wealth, not that people will come from other parts of the country to take our wealth.

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?

One, we have to clear our area because if people are working to get N20, the damage, and the aftermath effect is much on our people. That is my concern, not only for me but for many of our people. Many people do not even understand the environmental hazard of cooking this crude oil in this environment.

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?

Have you reached out to other former ex-militant leaders of Ijaw extraction because many are wondering why Ijaw boys from Rivers state could protest against you?

Before the protest even, I had spoken to my senior brother, Alhaji Dokubo-Asari and Ateke Tom , we spoke on phone and we promised to meet before even this protest. I do not really think they can be involved in such a thing, but we are even having a meeting here tomorrow (last Wednesday). Clearly, I know that even if I secure a contract in Rivers state, Alhaji Dokubo A