The Niger Delta is the delta formed by the Niger River, which is located in Nigeria directly on the Gulf of Guinea. It is often seen as being located throughout nine coastal southern Nigerian states, including all six states from the South-South geopolitical zone, one state (Ondo), two states (Abia and Imo), and one state (South West geopolitical zone).
Because it was previously a major producer of palm oil, the Niger Delta is a very densely populated area sometimes referred to as the Oil Rivers.
The Niger Delta’s present war began in the early 1990s as a result of hostilities between foreign oil companies and a number of the region’s minority ethnic groups, mainly the Ogoni and the Ijaw, who believe they are being taken advantage of. Despite the restoration of democracy and the election of the Obasanjo administration in 1999, political and ethnic turmoil persisted throughout the 1990s. Ethnic militia groups, the Nigerian military, and police agencies, most notably the Nigerian Mobile Police, have militarized practically the whole region as a result of ethnic conflict driven by oil money. By inhibiting foreign investment in new power generation plants in the area, the violence has contributed to Nigeria’s ongoing energy supply crisis.
Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, is a militant leader and activist. In the middle of the 2000s, Tompolo rose to national notoriety for his campaign against what he saw as severe economic inequality, fraud, and environmental devastation inflicted on Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger-Delta area. Tompolo was the head of the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which ruled over the Nigerian Niger Delta. Ekpemupolo, Victoria Government’s husband, is married to Tompolo.
This is all there is to know about Victoria Government Ekpemupolo, Tompolo’s wife:
EARLY STAGE LIFE AND EDUCATION
Although it is unknown whose community in Delta State Victoria is from, she is a native. Following the conclusion of primary school, Victoria received her First School Leaving Certificate, completing her education. After completing her secondary studies, she passed the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination. It is difficult to find information about whether she attended a university to further her education.
MARRIAGE LIFE
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WHO IS TOMPOLO?
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EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
- Tompolo was born on April 12, 1971, into the Okerenoke Royal family in the Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State. His real name is Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo. Tompolo is the lone son of Mrs. Solongha Ekpemupolo and Thomas Osei Ekpemupolo’s seven children. Tompolo was educated in elementary and senior school while growing up in Warri, Delta State. Tompolo continued his education after finishing elementary school at National Comprehensive College in Warri, where he earned his senior secondary certificate examination. However, Tompolo did not pursue tertiary study.
ACTIVISM
Tompolo, a steadfast adherent of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dictum that “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be sought by the oppressed,” Although Tompolo, who believes that “noncooperation with evil is as much a moral imperative as is cooperation with good” (14), is presently in the city of freedom, it is clear that freedom is moving more and further away from the High Chief Ekpemupolo Oweizide Government with each step.\
The fact that Tompolo actually sacrificed his life in service of the Niger Delta without rabid thoughts of self-aggrandizement, self-enrichment, or self-economic advancement to conquer the city of material acquisition and wealth and become the lord or mayor of the Island of material wealth is admirably acknowledged by everyone. He was adamant that he would never allow the liberation movement to “bill-gate” him. Tompolo skillfully gathered his own people to oppose the repressive and exploitative institutions, much like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther, but he did it under the direction of a distinct philosophy that sacrificed his own self-enrichment. His ideological separation from self-enrichment was the key to the success of his journey across Nigeria in search of freedom.
After Tompolo had left college, he briefly worked as manager for his father’s oil-servicing business, Tompolo Nigeria Limited, in 1993. Tompolo later became involved in activism during the conflict in Warri, Delta State, between the Ijaw and Itshekiri ethnic communities. Tompolo joined the Ijaw Youth Council in 1998, a civil rights group with a focus on the Ijaw ethnic minority’s needs. Tompolo eventually resigned from the Ijaw Youth Council to start Camp Five in Okerenkoko, Delta State. Tompolo and his band of armed agitators used Camp Five as their operations base and headquarters. Armed agitation organizations received supplies from Camp Five in the form of money.
Camp Five was the operational headquarters and base for Tompolo and his group of armed agitators. Camp Five provided resources to armed agitation groups in terms of finance. With the formation of Camp Five, Tompolo built a network of like-minded activists in the struggle for equitable resource distribution in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Tompolo agreed to the Nigerian Federal Government’s offer of amnesty on October 4, 2009. With some 30,000 militants, Tompolo’s acceptance of the amnesty offer made it easier for other militant groupings to lay down their weapons.
Tompolo, accepted amnesty when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua declared amnesty for militants in 2009 and went to see President Muhammadu Buhari after his victory in 2015 to reassure him of his support, went into hiding in 2016 when security agencies began looking for him in connection with alleged corruption cases, which he had referred to as a witch-hunt.