Group hails Tompolo’s N150m donation to flood victims

A Niger Delta sociopolitical group, Ijaw People’s Development Initiative, has applauded the ex-militant leader, Government Ekpomupolo popularly known as Tompolo, for presenting palliatives worth N150million to flood victims in Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States.

IPDI president, Austin Ozobo, on Wednesday that the gesture from Tompolo was “highly commendable”.

He added, “It would go a long way in resettling the devastated flood victims who are now gradually returning to their homes from the Internally Displaced Persons camps, where they have been temporarily kept.”

Tompolo had on Monday at an event held in Warri, Delta State presented palliatives comprising 2,400 bags of rice, 100 bags of beans, 200 bags of gari, 5,000 tubers of yams, 200 kegs of palm oil, 600 cartons of vegetable oil as well as 2,000 cartons of noodles, to representatives of the flood victims drawn from the three Niger Delta States.

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Tompolo, while presenting the palliatives through the Executive Secretary off the Tompolo Foundation, Dr. Paul Bebenimibo, lamented the havoc done to the victims of this year’s ravaging flood, urging the beneficiaries to put behind them the memory of the ugly past and move on with life with renewed vigour and hope in God.

He also enjoined them to make the best use of the palliatives as they gradually move out of the IDP camps to their respective homes as the flood recedes.

Bebenimibo remarked that the Tompolo Foundation has been in existence since the past ten years, silently catering for the wellbeing of less privileged people in the Niger Delta region.

He said, “In 2012, when flood disaster came, the Tompolo Foundation did a little it could then to cushion the hardship of the victims.

“Also now, Tompolo Foundation has approved palliatives worth N150million to be distributed to the flood victims from Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States.

“Representatives of these states are here today and they will be handing over the items to the beneficiaries in their respective States, so that they can move them to their homes as they gradually move out of the IDP Camps now that the flood is gradually receding”.

Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, a member of the Southern Ijaw Constituency in Bayelsa State, Chief MacDonald Igbadiwei, expressed gratitude to Tompolo Foundation for the kind gesture, assuring that the palliatives would get to the earmarked beneficiaries.

Igbadiwei, however, called on the Federal Government to come to the aid of the flood-affected States in the Niger Delta region by rehabilitating the devastated infrastructures without further delay.