Mr. Ekpemupolo was the leader of one of the several militias in the Niger Delta region that led a devastating campaign of violence against the Nigerian state for several years until he was awarded a multi-billion pipeline protection contract by the out-going Goodluck Jonathan administration as part of an amnesty deal with ex-combatants.
After giving up fighting, surrendering his arms, and leading his men to hand over their weapons, Tompolo in 2012 received at least six decommissioned Norwegian battleships, a Norwegian newspaper, Daglabet, found in December.
Among them were six fast-speed Hauk-class guided missile boats, now re-armed with new weapons.
The most recent hardware was the KNM Horten, a fast-attack craft allegedly used for anti-piracy patrol in the Nigerian waters.
'' It is hard to believe that the government spends N24b annually to the militants for them to guard our pipelines! Yet they do not guard the pipelines. They break it and scoop oil making us to lose about $1m everyday minimum! So if an individual now goes to buy warship, you can imagine what is on ground! A war ship is never switched off; it is always on twenty four hours of the day. It is a task to maintain it and expensive to run. And that is what an individual has. We have given them too much latitude and too much money. It has come to a point where we must assert our sovereignty as a people, because the country belongs to every one of us. They buy war ships, build universities abroad, they are so wealthy. This impunity must stop else Nigeria will go down the drain. It’s unfortunate that many Nigerians do not know that Nigeria is sinking! It must be prevented. When people make such statements, you can imagine the state of madness that we are in''. - Rtd. General Sam Momah
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