An Ijaw leader and Chief Superintending Officer of the Supreme Egbesu Order in Gbaramatu kingdom, Bodmas Kemepadei, has called on all Itsekiri indigenes to emulate High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, in the execution of their respective portions of the pipeline surveillance contract.

The exhortation was contained in a press statement signed by the Egbesu chieftain, a copy of which was made available to The PUNCH in Warri, on Wednesday. This followed the controversy that trailed the Federal Government’s award of oil pipeline surveillance contracts in the Niger Delta region.

While decrying insinuations from some quarters that Tompolo, an Ijaw man, was the only beneficiary of the Federal Government’s oil pipeline contracts, the chieftain insisted that notable Itsekiri leaders equally benefitted.

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The chieftain stressed that, “Nothing secretive lasts forever,” adding that, “Whoever comes to equity must come with clean hands.”

Consequently, he warned those he accused of spreading false allegations over the Niger-Delta oil pipeline surveillance contracts to desist from making unscrupulous attempts to ignite ethnic crisis in the state. He further challenged such people to come out openly with all available facts on the issue.

He advised the people purportedly making the allegations to employ new strategies and encourage the beneficiaries to be benevolent enough like Tompolo and use the benefits associated with the projects to touch lives of teeming Itsekiri people.

According to the statement, he said, “The contentious issues arising from the surveillance job has been under the supervision of the Olu of Itsekiri and his late father in-law for the past seven years. Instead of engaging stakeholders, his kinsmen, and host communities, it was made a secret and personal thing and it resulted to huge oil theft, pipeline vandalism, which led the federal government to revisit the contract and allocated some fractions to others owing to lack of capability. Unlike Tompolo, who has made his a welfare package for all.

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“Till this moment, there is no public record of Tompolo issuing any statement linking the Olu of Itsekiri to any pipeline surveillance job. Why then the baseless attempt to drag Tompolo’s name into an itsekiri palace quarrel.

“The mention of Tantita security services shows that you must have been briefed as regards the companies handling the surveillance job. Edema should also be tutored to furnish the public with the owners of pipeline infrastructure and its financial records, if it will not implode the Itsekiri nation and expose selfishness emanating from what is supposed to be an exalted traditional stool.

“Lastly, I advise that all companies handling this surveillance job should emulate the kind gesture of Tompolo and extend their hands to youths, women and leaders of the Niger-Delta region. More importantly, the Olu should inculcate members of his cabinet and his subjects, ensuring they are fully carried along as well.”