Tompolo petitions Buhari, protests asset confiscation after court order

Former Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, on Wednesday in Warri, Delta State, led hundreds of his maritime workers on a peaceful protest.

He protested against continued confiscation of his jetty and other assets by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, five months after a Federal High Court had dismissed all the corruption charges made against him by the anti-graft agency.

A Lagos Division of the Federal High Court had on July 15, 2020, dismissed all the 40 counts bordering on N34bn fraud against Global West Vessel Specialist Limited, a company linked to Tompolo.

But Tompolo, speaking through Chief Keston Pondy, the Managing Director of his maritime firm, Mieko Dive Limited, on Wednesday noted that he had made several unsuccessful efforts to reach government agencies, particularly the EFCC, to get back the confiscated jetty and other properties that were wrongfully seized.

He declared, “Let Nigerians note that today, more than five months after the courts vindicated me by quashing all charges of corruption levelled against me, the Nigerian state, through the EFCC, has refused to return my properties unlawfully taken from me under those charges. Our peaceful protest today is to raise a cry against this injustice in our land”.

Tompolo then urged the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to intervene.

Placard carrying workers from Tompolo’s embattled company, who complained bitterly of being shut out for several months, displayed their displeasure through placards with inscriptions such as ‘Buhari, EFCC, Obey Court judgement,’ ‘The absence of justice is the invitation to anarchy,’ ‘We are not lazy youths, we want to work, Open our yard now.’