‘We will meet you in battle field’ – Asari Dokubo dares Shekau, North

Leader of the Niger Delta Voluntary Peoples Force, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo has dared Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau to meet him in the battle field. Speaking at a strategy meeting with former Niger Delta militants organized by the Niger Delta Development Commission, Dokubo said the Boko Haram leader had threatened President Goodluck Jonathan and the people of the Niger Delta but that they would remain undeterred. He said, “They are starting oo! Shekau (Boko Haram leader) said in his video that we should not play with them. He said ‘Goodluck, I am coming for you. Niger Delta, we are coming for you.’ Are we going to allow them? They will shoot the guns; throw the bombs and that is when we will dance. “2015 is more than do-or-die. It is our very survival that is being challenged; it is our very existence that is being challenged and we must tell them; you are a man and I am a man, we are going to meet at the battlefield. Be prepared, be watchful. The enemies should not be allowed. In this region, there will be only one vote.” Also on the issue of Northern delegates at the National Conference insisting on scrapping the NDDC and reducing the derivation to the oil producing states to 5%, Dokubo said the North would not dare. “The people from the North have said that they should scrap the NDDC, that they should reduce the 13 per cent derivation to five per cent, and that nobody owns oil. We have to gather again and tell them (North) that they cannot dare it. “The North cannot scrap the NDDC. The North cannot reduce the 13 per cent derivation to five per cent. If they try it now, they will see. It is because our brother is the president that is why we are hanging on peacefully”. He further charged political office holders in the region to create empowerment programmes for youths in the area, stressing that they should take steps to reduce poverty in the region. “If we beg to pay our rents and our children’s school fees, then what is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of life if I stand at the gate of NDDC and beg anybody that comes in and goes out with money? Why would we allow our people to become beggars in the midst of plenty?” “Whether you do the right thing or not, we will fight until victory comes. You (the managing director of NDDC) never sent us. Nobody sent us. When we decided to fight, we did not know you. You never sponsored us. We fought because we believe that suffering will end. But if you, the beneficiaries of our blood, sweat and pains, will treat us as small children, then, what have we gained in this struggle?” “Let us make it very clear that if we did not fight, Goodluck Jonathan would not have been president of this country. It is because we fought that he became president. It is insulting to give us water hyacinth contract. I have the capacity to construct the road to Bonny. Today, vehicles have started going to Nembe, and that is a miracle”.