<\/p>\n
A pan-Ijaw socio-political organisation, Niger Delta Youth for Equity and
\nJustice (NDYEJ) has commended the Joint Task Force (JTF) for the arrest of
\nsuspected criminals behind the recent gas pipeline explosion from Escravos
\nto Warri.<\/p>\n
The Spokesman of NDYEJ, Sam MacPepple, in a statement in Port Harcourt on
\nFriday said that the arrest was commendable especially coming after
\n\u201caccusing fingers have been pointed at the wrong direction” on a repented
\nNiger-Delta militant, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.<\/p>\n
He stated that the arrested leader of the gang, Nengi Ikiba, was a
\nwell-known thug of the All Progressive Congress (APC) loyal to ex-former
\ngovernor Timipre Sylva and would help the authorities in their
\ninvestigations.
\nThe group recalled that Tompolo had before the incident raised the alarm
\nthat some people were planning to bomb crude oil facilities in the Niger
\nDelta region and attribute it to him but that his concern was disregarded.<\/p>\n
Macpepple, however, said that the arrest of Nengi Ikiba and his group had
\nvindicated Tompolo as he urged the security agencies to investigate the
\nsuspected culprits thoroughly to \u201cunmask their sponsors and motives behind
\ntheir action\u201d.<\/p>\n
He attributed the explosions to political reasons, stressing that it might
\nhave been a criminal expression of dissatisfaction with the outcome of
\nelection in Bayelsa State.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt completely beats my imagination that such heinous crime will be
\nperpetrated just to score cheap political point. To think that they blew
\nup the gas pipeline from Escravos to Warri down to Lagos and Abuja at
\nthree different points, namely at Opudebulor Okpelama and Kpokpo area,
\nChanomi creek and Sabaram behind Chevron Nigeria Limited, all because they
\nwanted to rope in Tompolo is most bizarre.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is however inconceivable that the bombing of such critical national
\nassets was done for purely political reasons and this is a very important
\npoint the relevant authorities must thoroughly investigate to get to the
\nroot of the explosions. Of course,Tompolo was right when he said those
\nbehind the bombing did it because they were dissatisfied with the
\nre-election of Governor Henry Seriake Dickson and because of his support
\nfor him”, MacPepple said.<\/p>\n
He admonished those who were still aggrieved as a result of the outcome of
\nthe Bayelsa State governorship election not to resort to destruction of
\nnational assets especially crude oil facilities and pipelines and
\nthereafter attribute such action to Tompolo because of his position on the
\nrecent election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A pan-Ijaw socio-political organisation, Niger Delta Youth for Equity and Justice (NDYEJ) has commended the Joint Task Force (JTF) for the arrest of suspected criminals behind the recent gas…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n