Tompolo, MEND Leaders Regroup In Bayelsa: Matters Arising

Leader of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND) and High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo on Thursday summoned commanders and leaders of the various wings of the militant group to an emergency meeting Saturday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital.

He did not state the agenda of the meeting; but Tompolo, who is the Ibe-Ebidouwei of Ijaw nation, in the invitation, said the meeting, which will hold at Izon House, Yenagoa, was important.

His words, “My dearly beloved Commanders and Leaders of various wings of the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), I greet you all. It is my pleasure to humbly invite you to a very crucial and urgent meeting.”

A source said, “The place of the Niger Delta in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and appraisal of former president Goodluck Jonathan government in view of the current happenings in the country will be tabled for discussion at the meeting. The meeting is restricted only to those invited, it is not an all-comers meeting. We will make our position known after the meeting.”

Tompolo and other ex-militant leaders officially disbanded MEND after they accepted amnesty offered them by the administration of former President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2009.
But a faction of MEND, which did not accept amnesty, continued to operate the militant group and stated their disapproval of Jonathan government, but it was obvious that the moving forces behind the group had abandoned it.
Saturday’s meeting is the first time all the former commanders and leaders of the militant group are meeting formally since it was disbanded in 2009.

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