Bad blood. Lives lost. Properties destroyed. Neigbours becoming suspicious of one another. Trust taking a long vacation. And like Femi Kuti noted in one of his songs: “Truth don die.” This, in a nutshell, is the tale of the $16b Export Processing Zone (EPZ) project in Warri southwest, Delta State, which has remained stagnant all this while.
But despite all these, nothing prepared me for the event of Sunday, November 16. My phone buzzed. The first instinct when the inspiring ringtone “There is power in the name of Jesus” blared out was for me to meditate and allow the phone ring for some time before answering it.
The man at the other end is Shola O’Neil, our Southsouth Regional Editor, who I consider one of the shining stars of Nigerian journalism’s new generation.
I was nearing the newsroom’s door when his call came in. I had taken permission to close early because I needed rest. Unlike my restless self, I had sat the bulk of the four hours or so that I spent at work that day.
“Hello Shola,” I said.
“Hello editor,” he answered me. The humble man in Shola always likes to address me as editor.
“I don’t even know how to start,” he said and paused, “we are in a kind of situation.”
The reception was not very good. So, at some point, I was not hearing Shola very well.
He told me a group of 14 reporters, including two from The Nation— Shola and Bolaji Ogundele— were in the custody of men of Tompolo, the man whose full name is Government Ekpumopolo.
The phone cut at a point. I went into my car and re-dialled Shola’s number. He explained to me that they were arrested on their way back from a news conference addressed by Itsekiri over the controversial EPZ that President Goodluck Jonathan was not allowed to carry out its ground-breaking last weekend.
The EPZ has been a subject of controversy between the Ijaw and Itsekiri since the idea was mooted. Last week, this paper had used the picture of Ijaw youths declaring war against the Itsekiri to lead its Southsouth edition. With this in mind, I wondered why it became a sin for reporters to cover the Itsekiri side of the debacle. Shola was in Oporoza, the home town of Tompolo to cover this news conference and rally over the $16bn EPZ project. Shola has been on top of the fuzz over the project and he was excited when he got a call that the Itsekiri were also protesting at Ogidigben. So, there he went to get their side of the EPZ brouhaha.
On their way back to Warri from the Itsekiri event, Tompolo’s boys hijacked the boat conveying them and took them to their camp in Oporoza. They seized all documents on them and the pictures of the Itsekiri protest.
What Shola told me next shocked me: “They came with a rifle, which they claimed to have found on our boat.” The gun, Shola said, was only ‘discovered’ two clear hours after they were seized by gun-wielding men and held at their camp. The mention of camp got me thinking. Do they still have camps? I thought all such camps were disbanded when the militants accepted the presidential amnesty programme. I began to query the sincerity of the leadership of the militants to the whole amnesty programme.
The excuse that a gun was found on the boat carrying the reporters, which also had some civilians on it, gave the militants the temerity to manhandle them. Shola, Bolaji, Shola Adebayo, Regional Editor of Leadership, who has covered Delta State for many major newspapers in the country, and others were there for no less than six hours before they were handed over to the Navy.
Other seized reporters are: Regional Editor of Vanguard, Emma Amaize, Warri correspondent of National Daily, Emma Arubi, Awoso Harry of Delta Broadcasting Service (DBS) Warri; Olu Philips and Paulinus Odedeyi of Channels Television; Osarose Sadoh and Alex Omoniyi, of Africa Independent Television (AIT); Anthony Ebule, Celestine Ukah, Josephine Ughweri and Victoria Nwaeze, all of Fresh Angle, a Warri-based tabloid.
The excuse for handing them over to the Navy was that a gun was found on their boat. That makes them criminals. Warped logic.
The news hounds were thus guilty of taking sides with the Itsekiri to attack them. Their explanation of covering the Itsekiri event for fair hearing made no sense to the obviously high militants, who detained them from 1pm till about 7pm.
Shola could only call after they had been handed over to the Navy. The militants, he told me, said Itsekiri journalists were colluding with their people. Shola is Itsekiri. Bolaji is not and the bulk of the 14 seized reporters are not Itsekiri. So, how did they arrive at this conclusion?
The reporters spent the night at the NN base in Escalon and were brought to Warri on Monday morning. When I spoke with Shola on their way to Warri, I assumed they were being taken home by the Navy. How wrong I was! They were actually taken to another naval base in Warri for detention. They spent several hours and only regained their full freedom in the evening. They left the naval base traumatised and sorry for our dear country.
Daily Independent’s Arubi was tortured alongside the other six non-journalists seized on the boat. Their sin: being Itsekiri. They accused Arubi of writing ‘nonsense’ against their leader (Tompolo). He was forced to hold a rifle and his picture was taken and reportedly published on the social media.
What kind of a nation is this? The militants who handed over the reporters to the naval men for alleged gun-running were also bearing arms, which I doubt they have licence for. The navy could not query them on this; yet, it willingly detained men who have, over the years, contributed through their pen to the nation.
Aside contributing to the nation, these men have also contributed to the lives of men such as Tompolo, who became overnight billionaires. In saner societies, Tompolo and his like are unlikely to be treated as heroes. It is very unlikely they will have the sort of access they have to the corridors of power, not to talk of enjoying million-dollar contracts from government agencies.
Since we started Niger Delta Report last year, Shola has repeatedly promoted the activities of a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) floated by Tompolo to burnish his image. He would always plead with me to accommodate the stories on the foundation. That was why I was shocked that Shola could have problem with Tompolo’s boys.
Perhaps Shola and others fell victim to the dictum that “all is fair in a war” because that is what the EPZ matter has become. Brothers do not trust brothers again. Or how does one explain the situation in Ugborodo, one of the communities hosting the EPZ? Camps have emerged in Ugborodo and destruction has been the name of the game. And now the Ijaw have joined the fray demanding that the name of the project must reflect joint ownership by Ijaw and Itsekiri. The Itsekiri say the project is on their land and so should have no Ijaw colouration.
What is in a name, you may ask? Will the project be more beneficial to the people on the account of the name it is given? Will its name mean a better tomorrow for the people?
My final take: This avoidable fight over name and sundry issue has dragged on unnecessarily. I suggest that a neutral name should be found to ease the tension. I believe Jonathan can call Tompolo to order and remedy the situation. Detaining and torturing reporters for writing ‘nonsense’ against Tompolo gives me the impression he runs a government of his own. At the risk of being marked for writing ‘nonsense’, I dare say that the fact that he bears ‘Government’ and is close to the powers-that-be should not get into his head. He has been lucky thus far and should not take it for granted.
