To: Mallam Nuhu Ribadu
Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA)
Federal Republic of Nigeria

Subject: Urgent Appeal for Intervention Regarding the Stipends of Over 30,000 Niger Delta Ex-Agitators

Sir,

Calvary greetings to you on behalf of myself, a personality I am confident you know very well and the over 30,000 ex-agitators of the Niger Delta region.

For the record and for the benefit of the public, permit me to provide a brief background of my standing and track record. As an activist, I played a pivotal role in persuading ex-agitators to embrace the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in 2009. 

Through public advocacy, including published calls in The Vanguard and The Nation newspapers on August 5, 2009, I urged fighters to lay down their arms and give the administration of the late President Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua the benefit of the doubt.

Sir, I state boldy that Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) is a wicked, ruthless, diabolical, and oppressive individual. Do not be deceived by his calm demeanor, his actions reflect a mindset worse than Pharaoh's. I speak from personal experience, having been close to him.

In 2015, when the Buhari administration declared him wanted, I was detained in an underground Department of State Services (DSS) facility in Abuja while fighting his cause. Furthermore, in 2023, just three days after his firm's Tantita security contract was renewed. 

I was kidnapped and held for four days in Akure, Ondo State, precisely because of my association with this ungrateful man. Despite these severe personal sacrifices, I received nothing in return.

When his cousin, Mr. Dennis Otuaro, faced intense hostility from various quarters during his bid for leadership, I once again stepped forward. I fought his political battles for several months until he secured his position and gained respite.

Following his assumption of office, Mr. Otuaro approached me complaining about a severe shortage of funds, and I promised to assist. For months on end, without rest, I took it upon myself to consistently appeal to Mr. President regarding the necessity of increasing the budget for the Presidential Amnesty Office. 

My focus was squarely on the pitiable condition of our ex-agitators, whose ₦65,000 monthly stipend can no longer sustain a family given prevailing economic realities.

Being of Izon (Ijaw) parentage by birth but raised in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, I am fluent in the Yoruba language. Leveraging this, I recorded a video appeal in fluent Yoruba, pleading with Mr. President to act as a compassionate father by enhancing the office budget. 

As Providence would have it, just one week after the video reached Mr. President through his Chief of Staff, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila ("Uncle Gbaja"), the President approved the intervention.

It has now been 10 months since that intervention, yet Mr. Dennis Otuaro has steadfastly refused to implement an increase in the ex-agitators' stipends. This can only be described as pure wickedness.

Based on comprehensive investigations, financial analyses, and direct interactions with Amnesty Office staff, key stakeholders, and delegates, we established clear facts ; even after implementing a stipend increase, funding essential programs, paying staff salaries, and covering operational logistics, Mr. Otuaro would still retain billion of naira monthly that can take care every other things in discretionary funding. Why, then, persist in this level of neglect and wickedness?

It has become evident that Oporoza House, the notorious power center headed by Tompolo, never genuinely fought for the well-being, peace, progress, or betterment of the Niger Delta people. 

Instead, their resort to arms was a calculated effort to establish economic and political overlordship and subjugate their fellow Niger Deltans. 

How else can one explain a situation where Tompolo and his protege, Dennis Otuaro, holding the reins of a major interventionist agency, turn a deaf ear to the cries of ex-agitators whose ₦65,000 monthly stipend cannot feed a family for a single day?

Mr. Otuaro continues to claim that he lacks the formal authority to unilaterally increase the stipend.

Sir, as a national leader and father figure, I make this direct appeal to you, just as I appealed to Mr. President. 

I urgently request that you direct Mr. Dennis Otuaro to immediately prepare and submit a formal memorandum to your office for onward presentation to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, detailing the upward review of the ex-agitators' monthly stipends in the interest of peace, equity, and social justice.

Thank you for your time, leadership, and service to our nation.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
God bless you and your family.