By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South- South
WARRI- GOVERNOR of
one of the South-South states and prominent Ijaw leaders in Delta region
have counseled the ex-General Officer Commanding, GOC, defunct Movement
for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, Government Ekpemupolo,
alias Tompolo, to show up before the Federal High Court sitting in
Lagos, which renewed a bench warrant for his arrest on Monday.
An
Ijaw leader, who preferred anonymity told Vanguard, yesterday: “Our
counsel to Tompolo is to stem the feared bombardment of our communities
and harassment of innocent citizens by security operatives under the
guise of searching for him and perpetrators of January pipeline bombing
in the state.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, had
withdrawn the security aides approved for Tompolo by the Federal
Government since 2009 under the leadership of late President Umaru
Yar’Adua.
Vanguard learned that the security aides, who had been
with Tompolo for nearly six years, were withdrawn soon after Justice
Ibrahim Buba issued the first bench warrant against the ex-militant
leader, last month. A source close to Tompolo confirmed the development
to Vanguard, yesterday.
In addition, security chiefs in the
Niger-Delta were reportedly strategizing, yesterday, on how to track
down Tompolo following the court order to produce him on February 19.
Two
key questions the Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger-Delta had posed
to those it arrested over the January pipeline bombing in Delta state
were their link with Tompolo and his whereabouts, which it was yet to
unravel until the court renewed the bench warrant.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/police-withdraw-tompolos-security-aides/
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