ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- There is tension in the Niger Delta region as Alh. Asari Dokubo, a foremost freedom fighter and founder of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF), kicks against the N4.5bn monthly pipeline surveillance contract awarded to a former militant leader, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, aka, Tompolo.
Dokubo who is aggrieved over the contract, in a viral video, said it smacked of greed for Tompolo to be in charge of pipeline protection for all the ethnic groups in the Niger Delta.
He wondered why Tompolo would be in charge of Delta, Bayelsa, and Rivers states, querying whether he was the only one that knew how to eat.
Dokubo vowed to stop Tompolo from being in charge of the surveillance contract for the 83km pipeline criss-crossing his Kalabari area in Rivers State.
Dokubo insists he would not allow Tompolo’s armed boys escorted by soldiers to enter the Kalabari area.
He said by giving all the pipeline contracts to only Tompolo, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, was only interested in causing confusion for the government in the region.
Dokubo said: “You will take a pipeline contract in Delta State, your place and then you come to Kalabari to take another one saying you are an Ijaw man because you are the only one that knows how to eat.
“You took the ones that belong to Gbaramatu, Itsekiri, Isoko, Urhobo, Kwale, you took all because you are the only one that knows how to eat. You went to Bayelsa and took everything then you came to take the one in Kalabari.
“If Timipre Sylva gave you because he said he wanted to clip my wings as if he were a god, when Sylva was a member of the House of Assembly, did I clip his wings? I am older than Sylva?
“When he was a governor, did I clip his wings? He is now a minister, did I clip his wings? Sylva said I was becoming too powerful and connived to give pipeline contracts to only Tompolo so that he would destroy what we are doing for the government he serves.
“We are making the government to be stable, but he is destabilising the same government he serves. So he brought Tompolo, gathered people, saying he would buy guns for them. Let them come. I am not boasting, let soldiers bring the Tompolo boys here.
“I am not talking about Rivers. I am saying they cannot take Kalabari. They can take every other place but I won’t allow them take Kalabari. You are collecting over N4.5bn a month for doing nothing and people are supporting you. You must leave the 82km pipeline for Kalabari. You can’t take it.”