High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo)

High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo): In May 2009 the former MEND commander in Bayelsa State was the target of a Joint Task Force operation that left scores of people dead and drove thousands of refugees from the Gbaramatu area...

But militant leaders such as High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) Prince Farah Ipalibo (Dagogo Farah) and Victor Ben Ebikabowei (Boyloaf) are getting paid much more - and that stirs resentment...

One of MEND's key leaders High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) drew most of his foot soldiers from Delta State from the well established Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities organisation...

It is the acceptance of the plan by MEND's key leaders - including Tompolo Farah and Boyloaf - that gives it some credibility...

MEND's top leaders are Government Tompolo in Delta State the most powerful commander in the Delta and Farah Dagogo who leads operations in Rivers State in coordination with veterans Ateke Tom Soboma George and Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari...

MEND's top leaders are Government Tompolo in Delta State the most powerful commander in the Delta and Farah Dagogo who leads operations in Rivers State in coordination with veterans Ateke Tom Soboma George and Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari...

Tompolo is unlikely to accept amnesty following a May revenge attack by soldiers on his Camp 5 headquarters...

The amnesty excludes the main target of the JTF's operations in Gbaramatu: the MEND commander in the western Delta High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (alias Tompolo)...

Tompolo remains at large despite the helicopters warships and thousands of JTF troops being deployed to frustrate his networks...

Tompolo's fighters suspect the JTF is building a new barracks near Camp Five which overlooks the strategically important network of creeks and camps next to Escravos...

Ateke Tom will accept amnesty if the price is right and Tompolo is unlikely to cut a national deal and may further increase his local following...

The rebel commander High Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo is on the run from government forces and the war in the Niger Delta is intensifying (AC Vol 50 No 11)...

Some of Tompolo’s supporters say he is lying low in Warri the capital of Delta State or in a well-fortified camp in the creeks...

Government forces claim Tompolo in his flight left behind in his guesthouse a package of documents giving details about the identity of his fighters arms procurement and relations with senior Delta politicians...

Yet Tompolo’s Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) rejects the documents as fake and is stepping up hit-and-run operations against government forces and oil companies...

The JTF commander in the field Major General Sarkin Yarkin-Bello says that the documents in Tompolo’s guesthouse included a Jane’s Defence manual on armoured cars and fighter jets...

Tompolo has acted as an arms broker so he is not just a customer...

Potentially the most damning documents are said to link Camp 5 and Tompolo’s MEND bases to politicians in the ruling People’s Democratic Party and oil company officials...

Governor Uduaghan has angrily denied allegations that he paid Tompolo 100 million naira (US$680 000) a month until recently...

Other documents from Tompolo’s house suggest that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo regularly used anti-corruption measures to enforce his writ over Delta politicians...

MEND’s Jomo Gbomo has dismissed the Tompolo list as a fake...

Yarkin-Bello Tompolo attacks his former political allies and friends in the Delta along with other state governments for benefitting from his operations and then betraying him...

The ultra-radical Joint Revolutionary Force and its idiosyncratic Spokeswoman Cynthia Whyte said the fighting in Gbaramatu was ‘the culmination of an attempt by these ungrateful and uncircumcised elements to cage the rising stature of Government Ekpemupolo a true Ijaw freedom fighter and emancipator’...

Troops are hunting down militants believed to follow High Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo a MEND commander with links to Delta politicians and whose involvement in the conflict goes back to the Ijaw-Itsekiri communal violence in 1997...

There are rumours that the army plans to establish a permanent barracks in the area in Tompolo's father's house...

Locals say Uduaghan has often visited a known training camp; George Timinimi who runs the Delta State Ministry of Water Resources was Tompolo's friend but is now his rival...

Tompolo who is close to many Ijaw politicians has security contracts with the State government and perhaps with oil companies...

Until recently Tompolo received N100 million a month from Governor Uduaghan...

Tompolo and Timinimi had nominated rival candidates...

Tompolo the target Each time the 'acceptable' level of violence rises and overall security moves nearer to breakdown...

This time the attempt to co-opt Tompolo failed and his revenue from oil bunkering is squeezed by low prices...

Tompolo was not on it...

If Tompolo is removed who will take his place...

In the Delta JTF Commander Lieutenant General Sakin-Yaki Bello declared 'wanted dead or alive' the same Government Tompolo reported to have been killed by his forces the previous week...

In the Delta JTF Commander Lieutenant General Sakin-Yaki Bello declared 'wanted dead or alive' the same Government Tompolo reported to have been killed by his forces the previous week...

FNDIC was at the centre of that uprising mainly led by Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tom Polo) George Timinimi and Bello Oboko who controlled the group's company...

Soon afterwards FNDIC's top field commander Tom Polo met Fara and Okah in Okerenkoko calling in Asari who sent his trusted advisors Dakuro Princewill and Cynthia Whyte...

Key figures are Kingsley Otuaro Government Ekpemupolo George Timinimi Bello Oboko and Dan Ekpebide whose names appear on an FNDIC document dated 1 March saying they would release the six hostages taken by MEND...

Government Ekpemupolo also known as 'Tom Polo' is said to be 'spiritual leader' of MEND; unlike his colleagues he keeps away from journalists and military officers...