Surveillance contract: Tompolo holds consultative meetings with Delta stakeholders, ex-militant leaders

•Seeks cooperation of bunkering/local refinery operators and leaders

Former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo held a consultative meeting with stakeholders, ex-militant leaders, and bunkering dealers and operators of local refineries in Delta state on Friday.

The meeting which was attended by a large crowd cutting across all tribes in Delta state was held at Oporoza community, the traditional headquarters of the Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area.

Tompolo, who presided over the meeting sought the cooperation of stakeholders, ex-agitators and bunkering/local refinery operators to help reduce the level of oil theft and pollution caused by bunkering activities in the tiger Delta region.

According to him, women would be given 40% of the surveillance contract, adding that no oil-producing and impacted community within the scope of the contract would be left out.

He appealed to bunkering operators to cooperate and work in synergy with him to ensure that cases of oil theft are addressed or brought to the barest minimum.

Some of the local refinery/bunkering operators who spoke at the meeting also agreed to work in synergy with him, adding that their plight should be deeply considered in the contract as they would be put out of business.

Also, Comrade Ozobo Austin who spoke on behalf of the civil society organizations thanked Tompolo for inviting stakeholders and ex-agitators of the scope of the contract to become beneficiaries and consistently fight for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta region.

He further said the entire Niger Delta environment has been highly polluted, adding that there was a need for reduction of the oil bunkering activities to reclaim the destroyed environment.

Ozobo recounted how security operatives have been burning law-abiding communities in the region just because a community is situated around a particular bunkering site, adding that the business is done at the expense of others.

The civil society don stressed that the excessive pollution of the environment had caused several unknown diseases in the human society of the region, noting that the cooperation of the bunkering operators was needed for peace and to restore a cleaner environment in the region.