Tantita: IPDI commends Tompolo, Pondi for repairing N/Delta environment

By Miracle Esegha, Warri

The Ijaw People’s Development Initiative, IPDI has commended High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo and Chief Kestin Pondi, GM Tantita security outfit for their commitments towards restoring the lost values of the Niger Delta environment.The group’s national president, comrade Ozobo spoke in Warri while addressing a section of Niger Delta youths on the environmental remediation as a panacea to healthy life and food availability in the region on Wednesday made this commendation.

Speaking further, the Niger Delta leading advocacy group said all well-meaning stakeholders and youths in Niger Delta would continue to thank Tompolo and Kestin Pondi and others for their sacrifice made to repair the almost destroyed Niger Delta environment.

He said not all the ways that please man are acceptable to God, adding: “The multinational oil companies and those doing oil bunkery should know that Niger Delta environment needs to be preserved from destruction. I agree with my Niger Delta brothers who want to argue that the oil belongs to us, and we should be allowed to take little of it freely but the question is should we take it in a manner that would destroy our environment?

“I agree that we should take little, since Buhari refused to make Zamfara gold a national resource, allowing his people to freely mine it into personal coffers. But I am not in support of taking it with a method that destroys our ecosystem, our health and aquatic lives!

“If peradventure the oil gets finished today and we have succeeded in destroying our Rivers and lands, then how do we survive? That is why we must take precautions. Let nobody say Tompolo is fighting oil bunkery operators. Tompolo is not fighting anybody, he is only taking a bold step to repair our environment. The contract was also given to Olu of Itsekiri. But nobody is accusing him of fighting his people. So l don’t know whether those accusing Tompolo are sponsored blackmailers.

“Do you know that when it was flourishing for oil bunkers, fishermen and farmers were dying of hunger because the rivers and lands were seriously polluted, and the land and the rivers became infertile? Has any time fishermen and farmers accused bunkery operators of fighting them? We must be rational thinkers and not the other way around.

“Each time I go to the river I get sick because of the bad smells of the oil pollution in our environment. The last time I went to a community that was highly polluted then, I saw a change in the environment. I saw that the water is very clean now. The bad smells are no longer there. I saw proper fishing activities going on. This is the progress made so far by Tompolo’s Tantita.

“I urged residents, stakeholders, leaders and youths of Niger Delta to support Tompolo and other key stakeholders to repair our environment for the sake of the unborn generation. Let’s not because personal interest destroys our future,” he said.