TOMPOLO: I DON'T KNOW TOMPOLO'S WHEREABOUTS —Governor Okowa

***Advocates grazing reserves for Fulani herdsmen.

Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, has said he does not know the whereabouts of the former leader of Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, a native of Kurutie, Gbaramatu Kingdom, in Warri South-West Local Government Area who security agents declared wanted last month.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Nigeria Police Force respectively declared Tompolo wanted between January and February over alleged fraud running into billions of naira. Governor Okowa, who spoke exclusively to Vanguard in his office in Asaba, the state capital, retorted: “How is it possible for me to know the whereabouts of Tompolo? I have not been in the creeks. I do not know where he is at the moment.”

Vanguard had asked the governor to react to the speculation in some quarters that the state government was providing cover for the ex-militant leader for whose arrest a Federal High Court, Lagos, issued a bench warrant over alleged fraud.

Nobody has seen Tompolo publicly since the security agencies launched a manhunt for him.

The EFCC obtained a court order to confiscate some of his assets in Warri and other parts of the state.
Okowa asserted: “But you know there is this tendency for people to believe that the governor knows everything. Much of the information I could get is coming from security intelligence and if the intelligence agencies do not know where he is, it will be difficult for me sitting in Asaba to know where he is.

“However, there is also this insinuation, because I hear a lot of stories, that, oh, my deputy governor is also from the same Gbaramantu Kingdom, therefore, he must know where Tompolo is. Nigerians are very quick in making all forms of assumptions. I do not know where Tompolo is now and that is the best I can say concerning that.’’

On the rampaging Fulani herdsmen, Okowa said: “The Fulani herdsmen and community clashes have remained a very thorny issue in our communities and it is not limited to Delta State. From our last count and discussion at the National Economic Council, at least 28 states are affected in this whole thing, 28 states if not more by now, and where it is not about the herdsmen destroying farm land, it may be about cattle rustling.

“So, it is a very major issue. The fact is that we need to understand what the cause is. We do not have grazing reserves, neither have we progressed to a situation where people have their own ranches. So, it is a major problem and I think that the way out is to ensure that we are able to create grazing reserves where these cattle will be restricted to.”

The governor added: “But what we discovered is that once you progress to the month of November, you are not going to have a grassland within most parts of the north. Then, the people, because the rearing is nomadic in nature, begin to file out and reach out to as many places as they can and begin to seek for grass and where they can get water.”