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| Ateke Tom |
“It
was after amnesty was granted to Ateke Tom and his group that he started
dancing naked (full time) to every tune played by the Fulanis (and their Hausa
slaves) by often speaking from both sides of his mouth on critical issues.”
In recent times, a certain former militant leader,
Ateke Tom has been making patronizing statements to Muhammadu Buhari and his
government to the chagrin of his people. In January 2016, as the leader of
Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV), Tom urged militants to desist from militancy, and
to hence-forth stop the vandalization of oil pipelines and other forms of
criminality. He claimed he had distanced himself from all such activities.
The ex-militant leader who spoke through his image
maker, Mr. Ifeanyi Ogbonna, frowned at the level of destruction done to oil
facilities, and described it as economic sabotage. He further went on to warn
that poverty was no excuse for people to take laws into their hands.
His words: "Nobody has the right to take the
law into his or her hands for whatever reason to cause destruction of
government property. The oil installation you destroy today has dire
consequences on your tomorrow. Poverty is not a guarantee to commit crime. So,
hardship is not an excuse to commit crime. This country belongs to all of us and
we should not destroy it. We should join hands with the present administration
to build a better Nigeria of our dream." he said.
Meanwhile a majority of people have already given up
on him as a hopeless case. However, rather than ending his folly there, he took
it to a subject that is bigger than him, Biafra agitation. He was reported to
have told Biafran activists to leave Rivers State out of their agitation
because the state was not part of Biafra.
What Tom’s puppet masters did not grasp was that he
was nobody, and knew little to nothing, about the subject he wanted to grapple
with. From the beginning, he was a vigilante, who was once counted among
freedom fighters of the areas of Biafraland called Niger Delta. Along the line people
began to lose fate in him as they accused him of having compromised his
position because of crumbs he was receiving from the Nigerian government.
Tom came into limelight around August 2007,
following serious gun battles between various militant groups and security
operatives in Igweocha (Port Harcourt). When things got so hot and the central
government under Umaru Yar’Adua offered amnesty to the militants, he wrote the
then governor, Celestine Omehia expressing his willingness to be part of those
granted amnesty.
On October 1, 2009, the 49th anniversary of Nigeria’s
independence, which was three days before the closure of the amnesty programme,
Tom and his group surrendered. It was gathered that a presidential jet was sent
to fly him to Abuja where he met with the late president Yar’adua, alongside
the then Vice-president Goodluck Jonathan; and other top people in government.
It was after amnesty was granted to Tom and his group
that he started dancing naked (full time) to every tune played by the Fulanis
(and their Hausa slaves) by often speaking from both sides of his mouth on
critical issues.
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| Militants before the amnesty |
He has long become a rejected saboteur, both by Ijaw
people and all Biafrans; nobody wastes time listening to him.
By Xylem Chukwubatista
For Biafra
Choice Writers
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