Fraud: EFCC declares Tompolo wanted, slammed him with fresh charges (updated)
– Tompolo has been declared wanted by the EFCC
– The former Niger Delta leader shunned two bench warrants
– Justice Ibrahim Buba ordered security agencies to provide Tompolo by February 19
A former Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, was on February 11 declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
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EFCC has declared Tompolo wanted
This was contained in an advertorial signed by the anti-graft agency’s head of media and publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, The Punch reports.
Uwujaren explained that the decision was taken after Tompolo turned down two bench warrants issued against him by the Federal High Court in Lagos following charges of a N45.9bn fraud.
The EFCC in the advertorial, which had a picture of Tompolo and described him as a 47-year-old, dark-complexioned man from Okerenkoko, Gbaramotu Kingdom in the Warri South-West local government area of Delta state.
The agency in the advertorial gave Tompolo’s address as No. 1, Chief Agbanu Street, DDPA Extension, Warri, Delta state, and also stated that he speaks both the Izon and English languages.
“The general public is hereby notified that Government Ekpemupolo (a.k.a. Tompolo), whose photograph appears above, is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in relation to the offence of conspiracy and illegal diversion of the sum of N34,000,000,000.00 and N11,900,000,000.00 belonging to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency,” the advertorial read.
The Federal High Court in Lagos, presided over by Justice Ibrahim Buba, on January 14 issued a bench warrant against the former militant leader after he refused to show up before the court on January 12, 2016 to answer the fraud charges levelled against him and nine others by the anti-graft agency.
The high court justice had earlier ordered the law enforcement agencies to produce Tompolo before him on February 8, but the former militant leader instead of appear[ng before the court on January 8, filed an application seeking to vacate the bench warrant and arrest order.
Justice Buba threw out the application for lacking in merit and renewed the arrest warrant. He then ordered all the security agencies to make sure they bring Tompolo to the court on February 19.
Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN), counsel to the now wanted Tompolo, after a failed effort to quash the bench warrant, argued that it was not his duty to produce his client in court rather it was the responsibility of the prosecution counsel to produce the suspect in court for trial.
Tompolo and the immediate past director-general of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, as well as others are slammed with a 40 count charge of fraudulent activities.
Vanguard reports that the EFCC on Friday, February 12 slammed new corruption charges on Tompolo, who has been snubbing court order.
The anti-graft agency has revealed that the former militant leader was declared wanted for illegal diversion of N11.9 billion ($60 million) belonging to NIMASA.
Tompolo, who is earlier charged with laundering $175 million has up till now refused to show up before the court.
He was one of the high-profile leaders of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for the massive destruction of oil and gas pipeline in the Niger Delta region in the year 2000.
But after the federal government amnesty programme of 2009, most of the militants surrendered their arms and some were given rewarding government security contracts to guide the oil and gas pipelines they once destroyed.
But following the ongoing probe into the $2.1 billion fund meant for arms procurement for the country’s armed forces by the office of the ex-NSA, Col Sambo Dasuki, it became glaring that some of the agreements entered with the immediate past government were allegedly used to launder money.
Fresh News report that the Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, has disclosed that detectives are on the trail of the former Niger Delta militant leader, Tompolo, over allegation of diversion of public funds.
Arase, who spoke on Friday February 12 during a tour of the Ekiti state police command said: “We are looking for Tompolo and my men are on his trail. We will arrest him anywhere we sight him.”
READ ALSO: Photo: Tompolo congratulates Udom,Okowa, Ikpeazu
The Niger Delta region has been in the news of late as several criticisms and warnings have been rolling out against the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Some top leaders of the region as well as renowned groups have been advising and accusing Buhari’s government of all sort of unattainable matters.
A group, Ijaw People’s Development Initiative (IPDI), had initially vowed to stand with Tompolo, who has been in hiding since a court ordered that he should be arrested. The order has allegedly sparked the bombing of pipelines in the Niger Delta region by suspected militants who are loyal to the former leader.
Not long ago, the popular Ijaw leader and former federal commissioner for information, Edwin Clark, wrote a letter to President Buhari to intervene in the alleged ‘humiliation and harassment’ of Niger Deltans.
A group under the aegis of the Ijaw Cultural Mandate had also raised the alarm over what it described as assaults by the administration of President Buhari on Ijaw leaders in the country, especially in Bayelsa state.
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