Ex-Niger Delta militant and leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Chief Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, has warned Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, to constitute the substantive board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), or face a total shut down of the region.
Tompolo who made this statement on Thursday when Akpabio visited him to find a way around the ultimatum given to the Federal Government to constitute the board, told the minister to go back to Abuja and stop wasting his time as the seven-day ultimatum for the constitution of the board still stands.
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Akpabio had, in the company of the Deputy Governor of Delta State, Kingsley Otuaro, Sole Administrator of the NDDC, Akwa Effiong, and the member representing Burutu federal constituency in House of Representatives, Hon. Julius Pondi, among others, visited Tompolo at his country home at Oporoza, the headquarters of Gbaramatu kingdom, in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State to hold talks with the militant leader.
But Tompolo allegedly told the Minister and his entourage that he was not interested in the meeting as the government had failed to do the needful.
After the visit, one of Tompolo’s aides said:
“At the meeting with the minister, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo and other Niger Delta leaders reaffirmed the seven-day ultimatum, and told the minister to go back to Abuja after much deliberation to immediately constitute a substantive board for the NDDC.”
Tompolo had in a statement last Sunday, warned that failure to inaugurate a board for the commission would lead to the total shutdown of oil facilities in the region, which will in turn cripple the economy of the country.
Tompolo has been.on the wanted list of security agencies in the country.
