IT was wild jubilation in most parts of Rivers State Thursday when news of the conditional release of the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujaheed Asari Dokubo, by an Abuja High Court filtered into the state. Asari, as he is fondly called, had spent exactly one year, eight months and twenty-five days in detention at the federal capital.
He was arrested in Port Harcourt at the headquarters of the Rivers State Police Command on Moscow Road on September 20, 2005. According to his wife, Hajia Mujahid Daaba Asari Dokubo, in an interview with this correspondent some time ago, her husband was taken �hostage� by the police. She may have reached this conclusion because Asari merely responded to a police invitation for a chat that Tuesday when he was detained and later bundled into a waiting plane and flown to Abuja. And since that black day, as many of his followers styled that day, it had been one legal trick or the other by his captors to continue to keep him behind bars until last Thursday when the court granted him conditional release.
Asari, at a time, was vice president Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, under the leadership of Felix Tuodolor. He later rose to become the president after his former boss completed his tenure. Sources in Rivers State said that he was largely instrumental to the emergence of ex-Governor Peter Odili in the 2003 election but fell out of favour with the political leadership when he reportedly maintained that the state and the region did not vote for the out gone President Olusegun Obasanjo in that year�s election. This position, many said, was later largely responsible for his troubles.
He found himself after sometime fighting what many called the greatest battle of his life on a structure he created called the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force. This battle, some called a clash of cult groups, claimed several lives. It generated so much tension in the oil rich state to the extent that Obasanjo had to meet with the warring parties to seek out a common ground for peace. Asari later redirected his energy towards the crusade for resource control by his region. He joined forces with other similar organizations in this new agitation until he was arrested and tried for alleged treasonable felony.
Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the conditional release. President Ijaw National Congress, Professor Kimse Okoko, said the release would calm frayed nerves among the youths and also open windows for serious dialogue with the region on how to resolve the sad crisis in the area. But he explained that the release was not enough to ease tension occasioned by hostage takings in the region. His words: �It is a welcome development. It will help to cool frayed nerves as well as calm restive youths. The window has been opened for us to go into serious dialogue. We have put together what we consider absolutely necessary to move the nation forward.
�The struggle has been on before Asari went to prison, there were people who were there before he came in. Unfortunately, most of you do not know that there are various camps in this struggle aside Asari Dokubo. Asari Dokubo is not the main camp in the struggle, Asari appears to be the only visible known group of all the groups to majority of you.
The struggle continues because Asari is not the issue. There were and are still fundamental problems affecting the Niger Delta which we have been raising with successive governments. Asari is not the problem, he was unjustly incarcerated and we sought his release but it has nothing to do with the fundamental problems affecting the Niger Delta. What we are just saying is that his release is a good gesture on the part of the Federal Government, we can now, at least,sit down with them, talk and address those fundamental problems. Certainly, his release will not ease any tension, it will only give a kind of window to start the process of dialoguing with the Federal Government.�
Tuodolor said the release was not a development worth celebrating, as it was long overdue. Nevertheless, he hailed the step by the Federal Government but added that all charges against him should be dropped. �The development is welcomed but also long over due. We call on government to drop the charges against him. The release will contribute to the peace in the region. Criminals into hostage taking in his name will have no place to hide henceforth.
They will not have any reason to indulge in it again. Let it be on record that we are not thanking government for the release because in the first place there was no cause for the arrest. It was just an attempt to supress the struggle of the region. Again we want to use this opportunity to call on government to demilitarize the Niger Delta region. Just Friday some of our youths were killed by soldiers,� the founding IYC president stated.
Scribe of the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Front (the political arm of Asari-led Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force), Odums Onisanya James, also hailed the release. He said it would help fish out criminal elements in the struggle and as well eliminate them from it. �So there will be peace.
Now we are going to refocus and redefine the struggle. Whatever condition he was given for the release is not our headache. The issue is that he has been released. The so-called conditions will not soften him. The development has shown the sincerity of the government not like the insincerity of Obasanjo. Now we can talk about the issues of peace in the region�.
The head of Supreme Egbesu, Sergeant Werinipre Noel Digifa, had this to say: �We welcome the release but we call on the Federal Government to release all Ijaw in detention in the country on account of the struggle. We have one hundred and fifty Ijaws in different locations in the country. We are appealing that Chief D.S.P Alamiesiegha should also be released. Asari is just a step. We raised a Kaiama Declaration on the way forward, we want it discussed.
The Ogoni Bill of Rights is there; government should discuss with all ethnic nationalities in the region: Urhobo, Itsekiri, etc. Again let me add here that President Yar’Adua would have started on a wrong note if he had continued with the summit on the region. The government quickly corrected itself.�
Prince Jumbo Jasper, a youth leader from Bonny, who also spoke on Asari�s release, said: �We are very happy with the release. It shows that the new government appreciates the suffering of the people and is ready to work towards the development of the region. But it will not end the crisis in the region. It will go a long way in assuaging the bitterness. Peace is not just absence of violence but also the presence of justice. Until fairness, equity and justice prevail, the struggle will continue. We want resource control and true federalism. The struggle is going to be refocused with the release.�
On his part, Siloko Siasia, chairman of South South Youth Leaders Forum, described the release as the beginning of good things to come in the Niger-Delta. His words: �It is a right step in the right direction. Government has shown a high level of commitment towards resolving the Niger Delta problem. The release has shown that President Yar’Adua will be committed to resolving the Niger Delta question. The release gives us a lot of hope. We are all happy, I am personally happy. With this, we are ready to work with the present government to actualize her goals in the region. This will also stop hostage taking in the region. We are going to try as much as possible to network to see that all criminal elements in the struggle are fished out. It is a good beginning for our people.�
Unconditional release
For Patrick Nagbaaton, coordinator, Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, Asari�s release should have been unconditional. Said he: �The Asari Dokubo phenomenon is one we got to contend with in the Niger Delta. The government should have given him unconditional release because the arrest had further deteriorated the situation in the Delta.
The situation we find ourselves now is such that Asari can�t cause an end to the security problem in the region. Peter Odili and Olusegun Obasanjo created the problem. Our organization called for sincerity on their part then but they gambled with the idea.
This led to the problem in the region. And those behind the security problem many don�t have any link with Asari in any way. We are calling for unconditional release for him. It must be noted that Asari is all the same fundamental to resolving some of the conflicts in the Niger Delta and his release is a welcome development�.
But for the militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, the release is a welcome development. Jomo Gbomo, spokesman of the group, said thus in an online statement to Sunday Vanguard: �We consider the release of Asari as justice served, albeit late.
This gesture by the new government is an indication of its preparedness to dialogue and has effectively bought time for the oil industry while the more serious issue of resource control for the Niger Delta is considered.�