Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari

Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force



Transcript of Dokubo-Asari's Boro Day Speech



Haa Izon! Today is another 16th of May and we are about to celebrate the anniversary of the death of the doyen and eternal hero of our Struggle, Isaac Adaka Boro. Isaac Adaka Boro dedicated his whole life to the Struggle for the emancipation of our people. He sold his meager belongings and decided to go into the creeks to commence an armed Struggle against the Nigerian State and her military.



Today we are following his footsteps. Like I said in my speech from the prison last year “Is our so-called Struggle related to that of our hero? To me, the answer is NO, because Isaac Boro and his fellow freedom-fighters were not kidnappers, rapists and, or murderers. They were men who dedicated their lives to the Struggle and offered themselves as sacrifices for our emancipation and freedom. In celebrating Boro Day this year, I would want us to focus our attention on the misguided actions being carried out by our misled brothers and their outside collaborators.



KIDNAPPING:

Kidnapping is an instrument usually employed by revolutionary and nationalist movements to force enemies to make concessions. In such a movement, top government functionaries, military officials and businessmen associated with the oppressive government are held by patriotic combatants. In many countries like Zionist Israel, war-Mongering Bushs United States of America, China, India, Colombia etc, this approach has forced government to release freedom-fighters and members of the freedom movements held in prisons in exchange for their captured people. This same instrument has also forced the oppressive and occupational forces in places like Nepal, Sri Lanka, etc, to peace-talks. Even though these movements are Marxist, Socialist, neo-Marxist revolutionary and Nationalist movements, their fundamental objective has been the furtherance of the revolution, the liberation and freedom of their nations and is committed to the total wellbeing of their people. As we all know, most revolutionary and nationalist movements relegate religion and morality to the backstage. Even then, they do not apply this very effective tool of kidnapping up to the bestial level of debasing human dignity as some of us are doing today.



Our kidnapping is senseless and meaningless! It has become an instrument to desecrate the Struggle thereby discrediting patriotic and true freedom-fighters, whose interest is for the promotion of the collective interest and improvement of the general well-being of our people.



In contrast to other revolutionary and nationalist Struggles, the Ijaw nay, the Niger Delta Struggle is both religious and moral; and as such, kidnapping and other immoral means of achieving success for the Struggle being employed today by unpatriotic elements (in the name of the Struggle) are totally undesirable. And we are not in support of such: we totally condemned it. In our Struggle, the means justifies the end. The law guiding our Struggle is very clear: we can not employ the same means used by our enemies to achieve the goals of our Struggle. Anyone who encourages and, or lends support to any of these activities is not part of our Struggle.



ARMED ROBBERY:

Today, individuals who hitherto are known criminals have jettisoned their criminal activities and have put on the garb of freedom-fighters in the pursuit of their criminal activities. Our enemies, the Nigerian State and her Multinational oil and gas companies have used this as a cheap publicity stunt to discredit the Struggle. They have poisoned the minds of the global community and indeed, those of our people against the Struggle all in a bid to justify their criminal occupation of our vulnerable communities.



The Nigerian State, her oil companies and their cohorts are beginning to hide under the misadventure of these criminal elements to conceal their acts of plundering and pilfering of our God-given resources in addition to the total destruction and neglect of our environments. The criminal activities of these armed robbers and hijackers have become the very face and picture of our region thereby totally obscuring the injustices, deprivation, emasculation and the marginalization of the Niger Delta people. And most unfortunately, this unwholesome act of armed robbery and other criminal activities being perpetuated by fifth columnists (in the name of the Struggle) have given the draconian Nigerian leadership, the cover to further the exploitation of our region and the marginalization of our people. Our task masters are hiding under these to deny us our unquestionable rights to freedom, liberation and independence.



INTER AND INTRA COMMUNAL VIOLENCE:

The temporal breakdown of strong central movements and grass root organizations such as MOSOP, IYC, NDPVF, NDPSF, FNDIC etc, has led to the proliferation of nebulous organizations and criminal gangs that do not possess the moral and ideological pedigree which our Struggle demands. This has also led to the proliferation of arms and ammunitions in the hands of people who do not have the moral and ideological guidance in the use of arms. The result of this unsavoury trend is the avoidable conflicts, deaths and destructions that we see in our communities such as Okirika, Odioma, Gbaran, Ke, Tombia, Kula, Rumukpe, Ogbakiri, Ogbogoro, etc. In most of these towns and villages, armed men have taken control and have dispossessed rightful authorities of their legal and administrative functions. They divert revenues accruing to the communities from oil and gas and other companies operating in our communities, resulting in a situation where others are forced to pick up arms against them. Sometimes a section of affected communities align with the Nigeria State by inviting the Nigerian Joint Task Force (JTF) into our communities.



And then, the JTF and other security agencies, using the opportunity provided by the divisions in our communities as occasioned by the illegal activities of these nebulous organizations and the concomitant proliferation of arms and ammunitions, have unleashed terror on the populace. Instead of abiding by the laws and regulations guiding their occupation, they turn around to traumatize the populace (socially and psychologically) by extorting on our streets. In fact, they have succeeded in bringing down the moral crest of our society and have totally destroyed the moral fabric upon which our society operates by sexually abusing our sisters, daughters, wives and mothers.



All these happen, and will continue to happen because we have allowed them to become lords and laws unto themselves instead of condemning them and their activities as being at variance with our values and vision.



CULTISM AND GANGSTERISM:

Cultism and gangsterism have become the bane of our Struggle. Cultists and disgruntled elements that lack ideological and moral rectitude have infiltrated the rank and file of the freedom-fighters by spreading their deadly criminal virus amongst our people. Today, all the problems that are itemized above are attributable to these cult kingpins who have found themselves in the front row of our Struggle. We all know their antecedents and what they stand for, but we have refused to condemn and distance ourselves from them and their activities. Today, certain people who claim to be part of our Struggle are brandishing Henry Okah and others who represent these deviant tendencies as being part of our Struggle.



I am pained by the activities of this counter-revolutionary and anti-Struggle elements whose relevance in the Struggle does not go beyond their bellies, their pockets and meals on their tables. To them, our Struggle is bread and butter. They employ any means to have a meal on their tables and some crisp notes in their pockets and believe that is the Struggle. For them, anything goes for the Struggle. They fraternize with happening guys who through criminal means have amassed blood-stained money and flaunt it before our people to lure our youths to their criminal ways. This address will not be complete without addressing the present socio-political situation prevailing in the Nigerian State.



GOODLUCK JONATHAN

Obasanjos decision to pick Goodluck Jonathan, as the running-mate to Umaru Musa YarAdua, and eventually, his Vice President, was to execute a secret heinous plan to weaken the Struggle and divide the Ijaws nay, the Niger Delta People. That evil plan was to divide us into those in Goodlucks Camp and those who are against him. We have seen through it and have refused to be divided by the evil machinations of General Olusegun Obasanjo.



We have therefore decided to cast our lot and support for Goodluck Jonathan to enable him succeed, but not jettisoning our legitimate right to be free and independent. Our support for Goodluck Jonathan is to protect him against all plans by our enemies to render him ineffective and inefficient by refusing to accord him the powers vested in him (as Vice President) by the fraudulent 1999 Constitution of the Nigerian State. I also want to bring to our notice the wicked widespread rumor that Goodluck Jonathan is being forced to resign his position as Vice President of the Nigeria State because of the rumored ill-health of President Umar Musa Yar Adua in order to pave way for another northern president. If this rumor is true, we shall vehemently oppose it: It shall be resisted by the Ijaws and the entire Niger Delta people. We shall oppose, resist and confront such satanic ploy with the last drop of our blood! And we hereby wish to warn that any evil plot against Goodluck Jonathan (in whatever disguise) shall equally be resisted in the same vein and with the same vehemence and opposition.



Over the years, our fathers aligned with the northern political elites in preference to our next door brothers and neighbors: the Igbos. But now, we have realized that this has always produced a slave-master relationship in favor of the north without any benefit to us in the South-South. Henceforth, we totally reject this relationship; and call on all Niger Delta people to be vigilant and mindful of news about the well-being and safety of our brother, Goodluck Jonathan. I also want to add that the same way Goodluck Jonathan as Vice president is being incapacitated, Ministers from our region are also being denied their constitutional powers as Ministers of the Nigerian State. We want to therefore warn that this situation if not arrested, will have dire consequences as we can no longer allow our people to be held with contempt in a country that is sustained with the “sweat-blood and resources of our region.



BAYELSA RUN-OFF ELECTION:

Electoral theft is the worst form of corruption. And the Yar’Adua government has demonstrated her penchance for these vices. They planned and perfected the worst form of electoral manipulation as witnessed in Kogi and Adamawa States. I want to use this medium to tell Prof. Maurice Iwu, and those who are preparing to rig the Bayelsa election that Bayelsa is NOT Kogi or Adamawa! We, the Ijaws will resist any attempt to impose any individual on us. We should be allowed to choose our leaders. We have never gone to Sokoto, Kano, Oyo or Kastina to decide who will rule them. We insist on “one man, one vote.� No amount of military intimidation and terror will prevent us from choosing the right candidate: our own candidate. We want to equally state it here that INEC that did not conduct election on April14, 2007 but declared the PDP candidates as winners for almost one year now will not be allowed to repeat same whenever the run-off election is conducted in Bayelsa. We also want to call on you, our people to rise up and resist any attempt by INEC to adopt a PDP progamme to conduct elections on the 24th of May, 2008. We must all become agents at various polling units to make sure that the election is conducted properly, and in accordance with internationally-accepted best practices, and results announced and entered in the result sheets at the various polling units before departure. We must always carry along our camera phones with video facilities to record proceedings at the various polling units. We should not be deterred, as our survival and well being is as stake. Bayelsa State must be free from bad governance, mismanagement and plundering of our resources by those who are imposed on us. We must jettison all political affiliations and put our interest and survival as the fundamental issues in choosing amongst the candidates who are jostling for the governorship position of our great homeland. This election is a Struggle between light and darkness, between Ijaws and our enemies. We must all stand up for Bayelsa and vote for the best man who will protect our collective interest and safeguard the Ijaw Nation.



GOOD- GOVERNANCE

In years past, Ijaws and the Niger Delta have been plagued with bad governance because our leaders were chosen by outsiders who in turn protect the scavenging interests of their god-fathers. These individuals have treated us with contempt because we are not the ones who elected them into positions of authority. Revenues brought into our region by our Struggle are carted away in a twinkle of an eye by these thieving political elites. We must therefore launch a zero tolerance for ballot theft, financial mismanagement and corruption of any kind and at all levels of governance. We must keep tab on our Councilors, Local Government Chairmen and Governors. We must enforce it on them to be accountable to us and not allow ourselves to carry the burden and shame inflicted on us by their external collaborators, benefactors and so-called god-fathers who claim to hold our mandate.



HENRY OKAHs SAGA

Henry Okah was once my good friend and benefactor. Whatever I am today as Dokubo-Asari (the proponent of the armed Struggle for the liberation of the Niger Delta) Henry Okah and others like him contributed to my success and to that extent, I greatly appreciate him. But Henry Okah had other hidden intentions that are antithetical to our Struggle. To him, the Struggle is only in terms of Naira and Kobo, Dollars, Pounds, and Euros.



Before my arrest, he started manipulating the members of my organization, telling them that I was preventing them from making money. First he started recruiting them as mercenaries to Equatorial Guinea to overthrow the military junta in that country. But I foiled it! After my arrest, he (under the pseudo name, Jomo Gbomo) manipulated his way to become the e-mailer for the new organization (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, (MEND) which we formed to prosecute the campaign for my release from prison and that of Dipreye Alamieseigha.



While there was public grandstanding about my release, he was secretly plotting with the Nigerian authority including General Olusegun Obasanjo, for me to either be killed in prison or remain there for life. Unknown to me at that time, he was recruiting certain individuals and arming them with my money from within and outside my organization so that even when I am released, I will no longer be in control. He failed because God did not let it happen. He introduced the boys to kidnapping, armed robbery and other criminal activities, telling them that they needed to raise money for the Struggle as that the Struggle will not succeed without money. And because some of our heroic combatants resisted him as he was diverting them from the moral platform on which we operate, he plotted and executed them in cold-blood. He murdered some and assassinated others.



We are all victims of his criminalities and evil plots. He also plotted for my death. However, with all atrocities that he had committed against me, I have refused (for the interest of the Struggle) to publicly attack him. It will not be in my interest as a freedom-fighter, to strengthen the arms of the Nigerian State by testifying against him in their kangaroo and Gestapo court.



Let me use this medium to also state that, in accordance with international conventions, Henry Okah is innocent until proven guilty in a properly constituted Court of Law. From my personal experience, I know the Nigerian Judiciary is not free and the grandstanding of presenting the judiciary as the last hope of the common man is false and fake. Therefore, the attempt to try Henry Okah in secret is wrong and would be resisted by all of us. He should be tried in public where the public will be the reasonable bystander and impartial judge. The case is between Henry Okah and the Nigerian government and the court should not give undue advantage to one party. The Nigerian government cannot be a Judge in their own case. The Judge should therefore disqualify himself from hearing the case between the Federal Government vs Henry Okah, as he has shown the sign of partiality in deciding that Henry Okah be tried in secret. If he fails to disqualify himself, any decision taken will be seen as flawed and therefore shall be resisted by us.



CONCLUSION

I want to state again that these misguided elements I spoke about earlier (who engaged in acts of criminality: kidnapping, adduction, blowing up of pipeline and high-jacking, etc) are working for interests from the outside of our region. Today, Warri and Port Harcourt are dead economically, as businesses and investments have left the region to other regions therefore aiding the dubious secret plan of General Olusegun Obasanjo, the former regular maxima of the Nigerian State, to relocate all oil and gas operations and activities from our region to his dream oil and gas Free Trade Zone in Olokola, Ogun State. We must resist this by exposing the criminal elements in our midst. We must rise up in a formidable coalition to stop these activities that are not part of our Struggle. The Ijaw and the Niger Delta people must benefit from the Struggle and not be harmed by it. We must smile and NOT weep as a result of our Struggle. This is the only way we can impact positively on the lives of our people, who have supported us even when we have failed them. We must not fail them again. Ijaw must be free, Bayelsa must be free and Niger Delta must be free for this was what Boro stood for.



Stop the Kidnappings; Stop the High-jacking,

Stop the Bank Robberies! Stop the blowing up of pipe lines now!!


Transcript