Elusive ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo, has accused leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the Niger Delta of aggravating his problem with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in a bid to curry favour from President Muhammadu Buhari.
Tompolo, who went underground with the security agencies launching a manhunt for him over his alleged involvement in multi-billionaire fraud, spoke through his Media Adviser, Paul Bebenimibo.
The ex-militant leader was reacting to a statement credited to former labour leader and APC chieftain, Chief Frank Kokori, in which the latter urged him (Tompolo) to come out of hiding to face the EFCC.
The statement by Bebenimibo alleged that Chief Kokori and other APC allies had a clandestine meeting on how to implicate Tompolo in a planned act of pipeline destruction in the Niger Delta.
The statement reads in part: “These APC leaders have inundated Buhari and security agencies with unfounded information that Tompolo is preparing to fight the Federal Government by destroying pipelines and other oil facilities, whereas they are the ones planning to carry out such acts in order to portray themselves as patriotic party members to get appointments and contracts from the government and its agencies.
“This is a disturbing development in Nigerian politics today.
“Most of these so called party faithful are not even happy with the performance of the President Buhari administration, particularly the appointment of party members to political positions, but they rather chose the issue of ‘Tompolo and EFCC’ to show faithfulness in the administration to get favour from the President.
“Using someone’s predicament to get favour is evil and wicked. There are many topical issues in Nigeria today that are worthy of discussion”.