…Threatens Mayhem In 2015 If…
…May Be Grilled By SSS
The Deputy National Secretary of the Oppression All Progressives Congress (APC), at the weekend described the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Chief (Alhaji) Mujahid Asari Dokubo as a ‘thug’, saying there was no basis for comparing both of them.
El-Rufai said this during an interview with Sahara TV, while responding to a question on his 15-hour interrogation by the State Security Service.
When the one-time Minister of the Federal Capital Territory was asked if the name of Asari-Dokubo came up during the interrogation, he said no, and stressed that he could not have mentioned Asari-Dokubo’s name because their personalities were not comparable.
“Asari Dokubo is a thug. I don’t compare myself to him. I’ve never taken up arms against the state. I’m a normal human, law-abiding Nigerian. I don’t compare myself with thugs,” El-Rufai said.
Asari-Dokubo, who is known to be a supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan and his administration, has at different times expressed opinions in sharp contrast to those of El-Rufai.
Many Nigerians have questioned why the SSS has not invited Asari-Dokubo for questioning for saying, “Nigeria will burn if President Jonathan is not reelected,” whereas El-Rufai was invited for saying, “If 2015 elections are rigged it might likely lead to violence.”
Asari-Dokubo also reportedly called El-Rufai a coward following his (El-Rufai’s) initial refusal to honour the invitation of the SSS.
During the interview El-Rufai also criticised the forthcoming National Conference, describing it as a ploy to divert attention from the failures of Jonathan’s administration”.
He said the conference would be a waste of time and money and would not help the nation.
“I don’t think that we need to spend N7bn to collect people with little legitimacy. It’s an opportunity to create political division,” El-Rufai said.
Asari Dokubo who hails from Buguma City in Asari-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State on several fora has wages war against the Nigerian state for what he calls, “Injustice and marginalization”. He has frequently called for resources control in the Niger Delta sub-region and demanded for fair treatment for the Niger Deltans. According to him since the bulk of resources sustaining the country economically are coming from the Niger Delta geo-political region, the people of the area deserve better treatment.
Few months ago, the ex-militant threw his weight behind the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. He declared that Nigeria will boil if President Jonathan is not given the chance to recontest the 2015 general election.
However, Asari Dokubo’s utterances attracted criticism from several quarters, saying that the ex-militant’s statements were capable of disintegrating the entire Nigeria as a nation.
This leader of the outlawed militant group, NDPVF was recently arrested in Cotonou, in the Benin Republic. The detailed cause of his arrest according to reliable sources, was that he constitutes major security problems in the Benin Republic, a country in a sub incest-African.
Of recent the Amanyanabo of Kalabari kingdom, HM King (Prof.) T.J.T Princewill, Amachree XI conferred a chieftaincy title on him. Asari Dokubo is always playing controversial roles within and outside the political circle in Nigeria. Many social and political commentators have advised him to be mindful of his words so as to avoid causing confusion in the country as the nation moves to anther transition period.
Meanwhile, the leader of the outlawed Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, NDPVF, Alhaji Mujaheeden Asari-Dokubo, on Monday reiterated that his kinsmen in the oil-rich belt would foment trouble if President Goodluck Jonathan failed to secure a second term ticket in the 2015 presidential election Asari-Dokubo, in an interview with newsmen, insisted that the people of the Niger Delta would make the country ungovernable if President Jonathan was not re-elected.
He also advised northerners not to seek election into the presidency on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the main opposition political group, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The militants’ leader, however, asked the APC to field a presidential candidate from the South-South to challenge Jonathan in the election. Asari-Dokubo said the people of the Niger Delta would not accept defeat of Jonathan in a free and fair contest, adding that the President must be allowed to rule for eight years.
He said: “If it is war the North wants, we are ready for them because Jonathan must complete the mandatory constitutionally allowable two terms of eight years. “At home, we have regrouped and we have put our people at alert.
In less than one hour, the way we would strike, the world will be shocked. “If anybody does anything against Jonathan, we will retaliate. What we will do will shock the whole world. We will cripple the economy of the country not only in the creeks, but also on the nation’s territorial waters, no vessel will be allowed to enter Nigeria’s territorial waters.
“Let them not try anything. If they abuse Jonathan, there is no problem, he is their President but anything that will affect the interest of the Ijaw people and the interest of the entire people of the Niger Delta will be resisted at any cost.” Asari-Dokubo also vowed that the defeat of Jonathan in a free and fair election would trigger crisis. He said: “Jonathan cannot be defeated, they cannot defeat him, they don’t have the right, every part of the country must have equal stake in the presidency of the country.
“Let them go and sleep in their houses. If they don’t, they are looking for trouble and we are going to give it to them. “It will make better sense if APC picks its presidential candidate from the South- South. With that, there will be no battle for us to fight and it will make it easier for us. Whichever way it goes, it will enable us to continue our right of uninterrupted rule of eight years, which is the minimum constitutional requirement.
“They cannot take that from the South-South and we will not accept it because every part of the country must have equal access to the various institutions of government, especially at the federal level,” he added.
Asari-Dokubo also replied a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and Interim Deputy National Secretary of APC, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who recently described him as a thug. He said that the former minister “is a political hustler who joined the opposition following his failure to secure patronage from Jonathan.”
Asari-Dokubo said that El-Rufai lobbied Jonathan through the Ijaw National Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, to secure appointment as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, and later as running mate to Jonathan in the 2011 presidential election.
He said that El-Rufai best fitted the classification of a thug, adding that the former minister did not add value to governance despite his “so-called first class degree from Harvard.” “What does he (el-Rufai) do as a political hustler apart from eating government’s money? What value has he added to the society with his education?
What has he contributed to the society other than stealing and looting? “When Jonathan brought him back to the country, he lobbied through Chief Edwin Clark to become SGF and later running-mate to Jonathan, he was wearing uniforms at Pa Clark’s place during the birthday of the elder statesman but he did not get anything from the government.
“When he found out that things are not working, he ran back to the opposition. It is sad that El-Rufai does not even know the meaning of a thug; he is the best description of a thug. El-Rufai is a thug because he strangulated the economy of the country. “Here is somebody who sold government’s prime assets in Lagos and elsewhere.
Where is NITEL and other nation’s strategic assets? They sold them to themselves and their cronies. These people are shameless,” he added.
Meanwhile, the leader of the outlawed Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, NDPVF, Alhaji Mujaheeden Asari-Dokubo, on Monday reiterated that his kinsmen in the oil-rich belt would foment trouble if President Goodluck Jonathan failed to secure a second term ticket in the 2015 presidential election Asari-Dokubo, in an interview with newsmen, insisted that the people of the Niger Delta would make the country ungovernable if President Jonathan was not re-elected.
He also advised northerners not to seek election into the presidency on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the main opposition political group, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The militants’ leader, however, asked the APC to field a presidential candidate from the South-South to challenge Jonathan in the election. Asari-Dokubo said the people of the Niger Delta would not accept defeat of Jonathan in a free and fair contest, adding that the President must be allowed to rule for eight years.
He said: “If it is war the North wants, we are ready for them because Jonathan must complete the mandatory constitutionally allowable two terms of eight years. “At home, we have regrouped and we have put our people at alert.
In less than one hour, the way we would strike, the world will be shocked. “If anybody does anything against Jonathan, we will retaliate. What we will do will shock the whole world. We will cripple the economy of the country not only in the creeks, but also on the nation’s territorial waters, no vessel will be allowed to enter Nigeria’s territorial waters.
“Let them not try anything. If they abuse Jonathan, there is no problem, he is their President but anything that will affect the interest of the Ijaw people and the interest of the entire people of the Niger Delta will be resisted at any cost.” Asari-Dokubo also vowed that the defeat of Jonathan in a free and fair election would trigger crisis. He said: “Jonathan cannot be defeated, they cannot defeat him, they don’t have the right, every part of the country must have equal stake in the presidency of the country.
“Let them go and sleep in their houses. If they don’t, they are looking for trouble and we are going to give it to them. “It will make better sense if APC picks its presidential candidate from the South- South. With that, there will be no battle for us to fight and it will make it easier for us. Whichever way it goes, it will enable us to continue our right of uninterrupted rule of eight years, which is the minimum constitutional requirement.
“They cannot take that from the South-South and we will not accept it because every part of the country must have equal access to the various institutions of government, especially at the federal level,” he added.
Asari-Dokubo also replied a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and Interim Deputy National Secretary of APC, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who recently described him as a thug. He said that the former minister “is a political hustler who joined the opposition following his failure to secure patronage from Jonathan.”
Asari-Dokubo said that El-Rufai lobbied Jonathan through the Ijaw National Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, to secure appointment as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, and later as running mate to Jonathan in the 2011 presidential election.
He said that El-Rufai best fitted the classification of a thug, adding that the former minister did not add value to governance despite his “so-called first class degree from Harvard.” “What does he (el-Rufai) do as a political hustler apart from eating government’s money? What value has he added to the society with his education?
What has he contributed to the society other than stealing and looting? “When Jonathan brought him back to the country, he lobbied through Chief Edwin Clark to become SGF and later running-mate to Jonathan, he was wearing uniforms at Pa Clark’s place during the birthday of the elder statesman but he did not get anything from the government.
“When he found out that things are not working, he ran back to the opposition. It is sad that El-Rufai does not even know the meaning of a thug; he is the best description of a thug. El-Rufai is a thug because he strangulated the economy of the country. “Here is somebody who sold government’s prime assets in Lagos and elsewhere.
Where is NITEL and other nation’s strategic assets? They sold them to themselves and their cronies. These people are shameless,” he added.
In a similar development, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as reckless, irresponsible and totally condemnable the threat by Mujahid Asari-Dokubo to wage war against Nigeria if President Goodluck Jonathan is defeated even in a free and fair election in 2015.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said despite the attacks by oil militants in the Niger Delta and the ongoing insurgency by Boko Haram in some parts of the North, Nigeria had not witnessed a clearer and louder call to war than Asari-Dokubo’s senseless vituperation since the country’s civil war ended in 1970.
It said Nigerians were waiting to see what the SSS, which recently detained for many hours the APC’s Deputy National Secretary, Nasir El-Rufai over his warning against election rigging in 2015, would do now that an ally of President Jonathan had threatened the very existence of Nigeria, by saying he and his fellow militants would cripple the economy of the country not only in the creeks but also in Nigeria’s territorial waters.
”What on earth gave Asari-Dokubo the confidence to issue threats against a whole nation? If he does not care about elections and democracy, how else could his hero, President Jonathan, have come to power? Does he know the meaning of anarchy? Does he think anyone, no matter how big, is more important than his country or bigger than its constitution?
”When he said President Jonathan ‘must complete the mandatory constitutionally-allowable two terms of eight years’ or the militants will make Nigeria ungovernable, was he aware that even the North that has become his favourite whipping boy did not complete its own eight years before his kinsman became president?
”It is not Asari-Dokubo’s fault. When we warned against the handing over of the nation’s maritime security to a company owned by a former militant in 2012, many thought we were crying wolf where none existed. But the threat by a former militant to ensure that no vessel will be allowed to enter the nation’s territorial waters unless President Jonathan is re-elected has shown the dangers inherent in such actions,” APC said.
It said Asari-Dokubo has overstretched his luck by trying to dictate to political parties to field only South-South candidates for the presidency in 2015, wondering what gave him the audacity to make such a careless statement.
”We in the APC will never be cowed by the senseless, emotional outburst of a man whose sense of decency stretches the size of a coin. We make bold to say that Nigeria will survive and thrive, whether or not some people want it. We reiterate the truism that election is the bedrock of democracy, and that anointing of candidates as Asari-Dokubo would want Nigeria’s political parties to do the very antithesis of democracy,” the party said.
It said the SSS must act immediately or be damned.’ “There is no better test of the fairness, non-partisanship and professionalism of the SSS than this Asari-Dokubo’s threat to levy war on his own country. “
If Asari-Dokubo is not above the laws of the land, he must be hauled before the SSS, just like the service did to our deputy national secretary, to explain his statement,” APC said.###
