It’s true MEND wanted Jonathan dead – Asari-Dokubo

Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteers Force(NDPVF),
Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, formerly known as Melford
Dokubo Goodhead Jr., has earned a reputation as a man who
has, arguably, made some controversial pronouncements over
the 2015 general elections.
In this interview, he spoke on the claim by President Goodluck
Jonathan that Mr. Henry Okah attempted to kill him, his al­
leged threat to overrun Yoruba and other issues.Excerpts:
W hat is your reaction to the recent endorsement of Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari by MEND?
Our people say that birds of the same feather flock together.
It is not strange that this phantom organisation is endorsing
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. I have always maintained that there
is nothing like MEND. Anybody who has been reading my
write-ups and interviews know my position on this. Let me
make some explanation, regarding the coming into being of
MEND.
When I was in the prison, NDPVF, the the political arm of
organisation I belong to, went to Okerenkuku on the invitation
of Tompolo. The IYC also went. Tompolo’s organisation was
there too. Other organisations were equally there. They went
to Okerenkuku for a meeting on how to come together for our
struggle. They decided that they did not want any more arrest.
They resolved to use a faceless organisation. Denis Otuaro
came with Kingston Poto and later Henry Okah came to me at
Kuje prison.
They came to get my opinion on the need to get a name that
would be used. Although members of the NDPVF resisted the
new alignment, I coerced them into joining them. Okah and
others wanted us to be faceless. They decided that fighters
would bear phantom names. So, they came up with names,
like Gen. Godswill, Tamino, Gbomo Jomo, Alaibe, etc. These
were phantom names. They were not real. That was how the
organisation, MEND, was formed. Before I came out of prison,
there was a break when Henry Okah became more domi­
neering. He was extorting money from oil companies. Almost
all the governors in the Niger Delta were paying him millions.
A former of Rivers State governor was paying him N100
million monthly.
Some groups started breaking out when they could no longer
bear what was happening. There was a group that came out.
The name was Nabina. It was the authentic MEND that
started issuing statement. Anytime there was an attack,
authentic MEND would come out with the nature of the attack,
where it took place. It would do that before the other MEND
would react. They started attacking each other. Nabina was
linked to me. It was formed by members of the NDPVF, who
felt that they were doing the job but another group was taking
the glory. They were the people who went to Brass, Cutting
Channel, etc. So, why would another group be taking the
glory? That issue dragged until I came out from the prison.
At what point did President Jonathan come into the picture?
When I met with the then Vice President, now President
Goodluck Jonathan, he asked me all that was happening. I
decided that NDPVF should stop all forms of arms struggle.
That was how we disbanded arms struggle. That does not
mean that we never had clashes with these groups. The Henry
Okah group started to mop up people. Kidnapping became a
vehicle for making money.
Ijaw struggle is a spiritual one. A lot of people do not know
this. The struggle was based on Egbesu.
When you are an adherent of Egbesu, you do not steal. If you
pick a toothpick that is not yours, you will die; if you rape a
woman, you will die; If you shoot a person who is not armed,
someone who is not fighting, you will die. Also, if you cut
down economic tree or destroy a fishpond you will die and if
you burn down a house, you will die. These are laws of
Egbesu. Those who believe in Egbesu don’t do these things I
mentioned. All the songs we sang then were Egbesu songs.
Only a few of us – Labikeremana and I – who were a born
again Christian and a Muslim that were a bit different. Even at
that, we could not say that we were totally immune from
Egbesu’s influence .
When Henry Okah first came to the Niger Delta, he didn’t
know anything about Ijaw because he is a Yoruba Ijaw. He
was misbehaving when he came. I have always called him a
Yoruba man. He came through me to be known to everybody
in Ijaw and Niger Delta generally. How his disagreement with
Goodluck Jonathan started was that he wanted Jonathan to
pay him money. I wrote a piece on this titled: ‘When silence is
not golden’ in 2007, I revealed a lot in the piece, which I
tagged part one.Ijaw elders begged me not to reveal more in
my proposed part two of the write up. The part two was ready
but I didn’t publish it because Clarke and others begged me
not to. They said that I was revealing the secret of Ijaw. I told
them that what they were doing would backfire. Everybody
was on my head. I became their enemy.
If Henry Okah asked for money and you didn’t give him, they
would come after you. When Jonathan was governor of
Bayelsa, the Okah group asked him to share the budget of the
state and give five per cent. They wanted five per cent of the
state’s earning every month to service the ‘boys.’ But
Jonathan said no. Because Jonathan refused, the Okah group
invaded Government House. Some of the people who are now
claiming to support Jonathan were part of the people that
invaded Government House, Bayelsa. They destroyed some
important things. My people ran away with Jonathan as
governor. They went to Otueke, thinking he was there and
burnt down his country home. The governor ran. Some of
them are today the people around Jonathan.
You seem to habour personal grudges against Okah? I am the
only person who has been talking against Henry Okah. He is
nobody. He does not have the power they think he has. If he
challenges me, we will meet. We will throw Ijaw into an orgy
of violence. Back to the issue, the Henry Okah group continued
with his strategy when Yar’Adua came to power. He continued
arm-twisting him. He demanded for an oil bloc and Yar’Adua
agreed to give him and his boys the oil bloc. But that could
not be done until he died . Henry was still in prison while the
discussion was going on. When Goodluck Jonathan took over,
he reneged on that agreement. But Jonathan released him
from prison on account of the amnesty programme. I had told
the world that Henry was involved in a coup plot in Equatorial
Guinea but it was denied. Later it was discovered to be true
and he was arrested, detained and tried. But President
Yar’Adua caused him to be released because some Ijaw
people who today have ruined President Goodluck Jonathan’s
government, impressed on the late president to help release
him. Some Ijaw people, I must tell you, have ruined
Jonathan’s government. They see danger but they tell him to
go to the danger.
Back to the issue, Okah, after he was released, struck a deal
with Yar’Adua to take amnesty. All the militants, except me
took amnesty. Because I did not take the amnesty, Yar’Adua
chased me out of the country and I went into exile. Between
2009 and 2010, I was in exile. When Goodluck became
president, I was called and asked why I was still outside the
country. I told them that I had no business coming back. But
everybody came to Benin Republic to plead with me to return.
In Benin, I was visiting Libya, Niger and Holland frequently.
When I returned to Nigeria, one of my assistants, who is my
cousin, one day called me and said, when one Chima was
coming back, give him some money for me. I called Chima and
he said he was coming to meet me the next day.
I am saying all these because people are asking why didn’t
Goodluck say it. Some Ijaw people want him to make
mistakes. When the call came, I decided to call back. I quickly
remembered that when I was in prison, Chima used to work
with Henry Okah. I told myself that something was wrong
somewhere. One Orji, Chima’s friend, who was also close to
me, called me and said they were in Abuja. He said that
Chima would call me later. Anytime they called, after the
conversation they would switch off their phones. I would call
them, but their phones would be dead.
Immediately, I alerted the office of NSA that something was
going to happen. That was two days to October 1. I told them
that there were people in town and something was going to
happen. One of our commanders told me that Chima called
him and showed him some weapons, night vision goggles,
explosives, etc. and that they wanted to renew the attack in
the Niger Delta. He took the picture of the weapons. I went
home, collected the picture and took it to the JTF
commander. He printed the picture. He later sent the picture
to Abuja. On Thursday, they went to search the home of Henry
Okah in South Africa. One of the closest persons to Goodluck
came to my hotel room in Bolingo and asked when I would
end the hatred against Henry Okah. He asked if it was
because he was more popular than I. I told him that we were
not in popularity contest. This was happening on Thursday.
On Friday, the bomb went off. Instead of helping to arrest
Henry Okah, when he was here, they were calling him on
phone to advise him that MEND should not claim
responsibility for the bomb blast. Some of the things I am
telling you were on my Facebook wall. I was the first person,
after the October 1, 2010 blast, to come out to say that Henry
Okah was responsible for the bomb explosion. Many people
attacked me. The former president of IYC came out and
abused me. They were all thinking that Ijaw must be united. It
has dawned on all of them now that Henry Okah was the
greatest danger to our struggle.
The reason I cannot be charged by the Nigerian state is that
there is no evidence that I did oil bunkering, kidnapping or
other evils. All my charges are political. As far as our struggle
was concerned, we saw it as a moral one. We believe that
morality must come first before any other thing. We are
finished if we lose the support of God. It is the support of God
that emboldened us to fight. It is what gives us the impetus,
the drive to say that if you shoot us, we will not die. For me,
what the president said is belated. He had known since 2007
that the Henry Okah group wanted to kill him. For not saying
it out since, it is the fault of Ijaw leaders, including Clarke,
who had been saying they should hide those thing and sweep
it under the carpet. They forgot that one day, the debris under
the carpet would become too much that the carpet would be
undulated. The stench is coming out now and the president
can no longer hold back; he has now come out to say that
Henry Okah wanted to assassinate him. What he said was
true. Henry Okah wanted him dead.
Were Ijaw leaders the people that asked the President to
exonerate MEND when the blast took place? The argument
that the president gave was in order. When you talk about
MEND, Tompolo, Boy Loaf, Africa, Ogunbos and Varadagogo
were all MEND leaders. They were field commanders but they
were not among those that carried out the bomb blast. It is
like IRA, a branch of the organisation goes to carry out a
bomb blast and the mainstream IRA says no, we are not part
of it . Ninety nine per cent of the so-called conglomerate of
MEND was not there. They had taken amnesty and they were
with Mr. President. So, the president was right in saying that
MEND was not involved. If Mr. President had exonerated all
the MEND elements, Henry Okah would not have been
arrested. The president was making a distinction between
Henry Okah and the mainstream MEND, which was led by
Tompolo and which is still with Mr. President.
He was not wrong. Let me give you another analogy. It is like
some APC members attacking somebody. They didn’t have the
authority and backing of the authorities of APC before carrying
out the attack. The party will not take responsibility. The party
would be right to say that the attack was not carried out by
it; that those people who did the attack are members of APC
does equate to APC being responsible for the attack .
Is it safe to say that security agents at a point deceived the
president by going after Chief Raymond Dokpesi? That is not
true. A lot of things happened that Nigerians do not know. If
we go into it, we will spill a lot of beans. Ebiwari, who is in
prison now, was working with Dokpesi. My driver, who is late,
was also working with Dokpesi and co. Henry Okah was with
them. When they were caught, they saw messages in their
handsets sent to Dokpesi, Henry Okah and other people. For
everybody that was investigated, there were telephone calls
that linked them together. The security tried to arrest every­
body that was connected in the calls and text messages, etc.
When I was in the prison, kidnapping was going on. Dokpesi
came to me when the first set of kidnapping was done. The
police brought phone to me at Area 10. Dokpesi spoke to me
through my sister, Hilda Dokubo. He asked me how I could
facilitate and talk to these boys to release the people
kidnapped. He said that it was giving a bad image to the
government.
The Henry Okah people were anti-Goodluck. They didn’t want
Goodluck to win the 2011 election; the same thing they are
doing now endorsing Buhari. They issued the same statement
in 2011 that nobody should vote for Goodluck.
You said that some Niger Delta leaders are deceiving
Jonathan. Is Clarke among the people?
No, I didn’t say that Clarke was among those deceiving the
president . What Clarke and few Ijaw leaders wanted was
genuine. They wanted unity among Ijaw fighters, among Niger
Delta people. They did not want disunity. They saw me as
somebody who was not ready to abide by this. They felt that I
was not ready to hide a few people who were doing some
wrongs. They wanted me to keep quite, even when some
things were not right but I cannot do that. By the way I was
brought up I cannot keep quiet in the face of evil. Most of the
people I am working with are from poor background. I have
never known poverty. I have always had whatever I wanted.
People want to be rich but wealth means nothing to me, it
does not entice me. I was chauffeur-driven to school, except
when I was in the village with my grandmother. My other
siblings never experienced village life; that is why I am
different from them. I went to live in the village because my
father wanted me to learn the culture and language of my
people. Most of siblings cannot speak our dialect very well.
Clarke and others saw me as being arrogant.
You are considered as one of the few Nigerians making
inflammatory utterances ahead of the February election. How
do you feel being associated with this toga?
I have never made a statement without reacting to somebody.
I am not a mad man. I see somebody with a gun on televi­
sion, standing and saying: ‘We are going to kill you, Niger
Delta; Niger Delta, we are coming’ and you expect me to fold
my hands and watch him? No, I can’t do that. That is how
the people in Gwoza waited: where are they today? The
people in Mubi waited; where are they today? The people in
Baga waited; where are they today? I will not wait. Let Ango
Abdullahi and Buhari call their boys to order. If they shoot us,
we will shoot them back. There are no two ways about it. You
cannot tell me that I should fold my hands and get killed.
You see a man with armoured vehicle, anti aircraft and you
tell me to fold my hands. I will not do so. I will also buy mine.
I will also prepare. Before the man would shoot at me, I will
shoot him. It is my right to life. Who is Ango Abdullahi? If not
that he is from the North, would he have been a professor in
the first place? What is his academic contribution? He makes
careless and provocative statements and expects us to keep
quiet. I will not do that. There is this thing that everybody has
been doing – leave them, please, you are not like them, don’t
go and compare your life with them, they will kill you, etc.
That is nonsense. Don’t they have fleas and blood? If I shoot
them, will they not die? Why should I leave them? They will
look at me and say they are born to rule. I will punch anybody
that says that.
You were quoted as having threatened to overrun Yorubaland
if the people fail to vote for Jonathan next month. How true
is the claim?
I never made such statement; it is a lie. Everybody knows that
whenever I make a statement, I own up to it. There is no such
thing. Many times, a lot of things are ascribed to me. For
instance, they claimed I said ‘this Fulani man.’ I don’t use the
world Fulani. What I use is Gambari for Fulani people. They
claimed I said ‘this Fulani man, Buhari’ will do better for Niger
Delta people than President Jonathan. How can I say such
thing? When he was head of state, let him show what he did
for the Niger Delta. He was in the PTF, let him show what he
did for the Niger Delta. What they do is that, because they feel
that I am very vocal for the election, they ascribe all manner
of things to me. They know that they have lost Yorubaland;
how can they win in Yoruba? There is nothing they can do to
win in Yorubaland. They lost the election in Ekiti. In Osun,
where they have the power, they scored 52/48. They know
they have lost election in Yorubaland. They want to inflame
tempers; they came up with the claim that Jonathan’s brother
said he would overrun Yorubaland. They have failed; they
have access to the press and I have too. I never said such
thing.