Former militant leader in Niger Delta and founder of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Chief Government Ekpomupolo, otherwise known as Tompolo, has summoned key commanders of the group to a meeting on Saturday.
The meeting of the once deadly militant movement, billed for Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, is already sending disturbing signals to the security circle.
The gathering will be the first official meeting of MEND since its members, who disrupted oil production and embarked on kidnapping of oil workers and piracy, accepted the amnesty offer of the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2009.
A statement reportedly signed by Tompolo on the proposed meeting read: “My dearly beloved Commanders and leaders of various wings of the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), I greet you all.
“It is my pleasure to humbly invite you to a very crucial and urgent meeting as follows: Venue: Izon House, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Date (of the meeting is) Saturday, July 25th, 2015. Time (is) 2pm Prompt.” Tompolo signed-off with his traditional title – Izon Ibe-Ebidouwei of Izon nation.
Tompolo’s spokesman, Paul Bebenimibo, confirmed the meeting, but allayed fears that it was a prelude to the out break of fresh hostilities in the oil-rich region.
“It is not and cannot be what people think; there is no cause for alarm because no evil is intended by the meeting scheduled for Saturday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
“And because the parley intends to be moderate and focused, only invited persons are going to be allowed into the meeting because there is need to be cautious in this regard.
“Basically, the meeting is to have an appraisal of the prevailing situation in the Niger Delta and discuss modalities that will engender peace and development to our region.
However, it was learnt that leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the oil-rich Niger Delta region were said to have made efforts to reach Tompolo to ascertain the reasons for the meeting.
“We are worried; this man is not known for frivolities and we need to find out why such a meeting at this time because he has remained silent and had made suggestions on the way forward for the Niger Delta region under this administration,” a top APC leader said on Thursday.
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