Government Ekpemupolo, better known as Tompolo, has lambasted the Nigerian Army and Nigerian Navy accusing them of shielding oil thieves.
The Nigeria Delta activist made the incriminating revelation against the military in an interview with Channels TV which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York.
The President Muhammadu Buhari administration recently awarded Tompolo a pipeline security contract.
The deal, which sparked controversy, is to protect oil lines in the six South-South states and is reportedly worth N50billion per year.
Tompolo, former commander of the defunct Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), has vowed to stop oil theft in the region.
Read Also: Withdraw Tompolo’s Surveillance Contract – A’Ibom
‘A lot of people are running helter-skelter because they know that there is nothing in this country concerning the riverine that I don’t know’, he said.
Delta-based Tompolo, an Egbesu chief priest, disclosed that youths engaged for the job in other states would soon commence work.
‘Once they are fully engaged, we will now call security agencies to call their people to order.
‘When you are coming from Warri (capital of Delta), you see security boats all over the place.
‘If you look at the whole setting, where this illegal bunkering is taking place…
‘…If you have one Navy gunboat, one Army gunboat, the extreme end is where the real bunkering is taking place’, he stated.
The contracts for pipeline surveillance which was recently allotted to the former agitator has drawn criticism from the Akwa Ibom Ex-Militants’ Forum, which argues that they are exploited by the motion.
This was made known in a statement issued to President Muhammadu Buhari and forwarded to security agencies, signed by the Coordinator, Johnson Solomon, and the Secretary, Godwin Edohoaqua.
They claimed in the petition that the awarding of such a contract to a former agitator sectional leader, while oil pipelines traverse their land without their consent, was the pinnacle of marginalization. Additionally, they mentioned how oil extraction had caused environmental harm in their neighborhoods.
Ex-militants claim that if the federal government doesn’t rescind the pipeline surveillance contract given to Tompolo, oil production in the state will be shuttered in dissent.