Police Withdraw Tompolo’s Security Aides

WARRI- GOVERNOR of one of the South-South states and prominent Ijaw leaders in Delta region have counseled the ex-General Officer Commanding, GOC, defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, to show up before the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, which renewed a bench warrant for his arrest on Monday.

An Ijaw leader, who preferred anonymity told Vanguard, yesterday: “Our counsel to Tompolo is to stem the feared bombardment of our communities and harassment of innocent citizens by security operatives under the guise of searching for him and perpetrators of January pipeline bombing in the state.”

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, had withdrawn the security aides approved for Tompolo by the Federal Government since 2009 under the leadership of late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Vanguard learned that the security aides, who had been with Tompolo for nearly six years, were withdrawn soon after Justice Ibrahim Buba issued the first bench warrant against the ex-militant leader, last month. A source close to Tompolo confirmed the development to Vanguard, yesterday.

In addition, security chiefs in the Niger-Delta were reportedly strategizing, yesterday, on how to track down Tompolo following the court order to produce him on February 19.

Two key questions the Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger-Delta had posed to those it arrested over the January pipeline bombing in Delta state were their link with Tompolo and his whereabouts, which it was yet to unravel until the court renewed the bench warrant.