A local Ijaw chief in his local Gbaramatu community of Delta State, Tompolo, who was highly influential during the era of former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan, was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to visit their offices in December to answer charges relating to supply contracts he was given. He has however, shunned the EFCC invitation, prompting an Abuja magistrates court and a Lagos federal high court to issue warrants for his arrest.
Following the issuing of the arrest warrants, the EFCC has taken out advertisements in national newspapers asking for information on Tompolo's whereabouts. Over the weekend, the Nigeria Police Force also launched a massive manhunt for him, sending units into the creeks of the Niger Delta.
A Lagos federal high court has given the security agencies up until February 19 to produce Tompolo and the police are keen to arrest him by then. However, Tompolo's Ijaw relatives in his Gbaramatu kingdom of Delta State had vowed not to disclose his hideout to the security men.
One local chief said: “No Gbaramatu man will reveal the hideout of Tompolo to any security man even if he knows, unless that person does not have a true Ijaw blood flowing in him. Tompolo is an institution, not only in Ijawland but in the whole of Niger Delta.
"He has touched many lives and is the current symbol of the struggle, therefore, it is not easy for any full-blooded Ijaw man to betray him. From what I can see, the whole thing is about business transactions, so the federal government should settle the matter and let peace reign.”
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Lagos federal high court had ordered the arrest of the ex-militant leader for his failure to appear before him to answer 40 counts on an alleged N45.9bn (£158m), fraud. In the charge sheet, the EFCC had alleged that Tompolo and a former director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpobolokemi, alongside eight others, committed fraud.
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