IJAW leaders, who came to Aso Rock yesterday to plead for the release of detained leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo went back disappointed yesterday as President Olusegun Obasanjo turned down their request.
Obasanjo told the Ijaw elders led by Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark that those who took up arms against the Nigerian state must be made to face the full wrath of the law.
The Ijaws are believed to be the fourth largest ethnic group in Nigeria.
Under the auspices of the Ijaw Leaders Forum, they came to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also to seek the Federal Government’s assistance in their efforts to check the recalcitrance of youths in the Niger Delta region.
Obasanjo, who was not well disposed to the request for the release of the detained militant leader, said: “No individual, no matter how big or small, will hold the country to ransom. We will not allow that.”
He added that the Presidential Council on the Socio-economic Development of the Coastal States of the Niger Delta, which he set up, had enabled the youths of the area to hold their elected leaders at the state level and other representatives responsible for their actions or inaction while in government.
The President therefore challenged the Ijaw elders to give strong leadership and contribute their quota to his administration’s efforts to make a difference in the Niger Delta. He also called for concerted efforts to find solutions to the collapse of community life in the country.
According to the President, “we must find a lasting solution to this problem of the collapse of community life. We must re-create and re-establish the spirit, ethos and values which accord respect to the elders of the community.”
The delegation also expressed condolences to the President on the Nigerian Air Force and Aviation Development Company (ADC) aircraft crashes. They commended him for the release of N19 billion for the aviation industry.
On May 12, 2006, when Asari-Dokubo was brought to the Federal High Court in Abuja for trial, his supporters turned it into a theatre of war. They sang Ijaw war songs to re-affirm their readiness to lay down their lives for the freedom of the “Ijaw nation.”
Asari-Dokubo stated that the Ijaw nation had the arsenal to wage war against Obasanjo and bring him to book for alleged crimes against humanity.
Like a choir master, Asari-Dokubo set the tone as he raised one song after another, with his members taking the cue and joining in.
He is on trial for alleged treasonable offences.
In his address, Asari-Dokubo said Obasanjo was of the erroneous view that incarcerating him would break his spirit, make him beg for freedom and abandon the Ijaw cause.
“0basanjo has bitten more than he can chew. He thinks he can break my spirit and make me beg by putting me in prison. It is a lie. I can never beg.”
He added: “I am ready to pay the ultimate price for my people to be free. The struggle is my life. We must be free! The Ijaw people must be free! The Ijaw nation must be free!”
He continued: “I can see Obasanjo falling. He is falling. He is falling. Some people thought we were lying. Today, it is clear that we are now having a man… out to devour everybody.
“I promise him that the Ijaw will follow him every inch, every step of the way. I will be alive to see Obasanjo in chains and tried for crimes against humanity. The masses and the downtrodden will then have freedom.
“Freedom is not negotiable. The charlatans he gathered together as leaders of our people are no leaders. They won’t be able to change the course of revolution.
“He has not come to terms with the reality of the Niger Delta, he will surely be brought down. He will be tried over the crimes he committed against Odi and Odioma. There will be no more Odi, no more Odioma.
“Let me say clearly that for every Ijaw person he kills, hundreds of his people will be killed in his stead. We are ready to meet him arms for arms, arsenal for arsenal. If all these do not work, we will use everything, including biological weapons.
“I am not an Owu captive. My father was a king, who fought their battle for them. I challenge Obasanjo to battle; the battle line has already been drawn.
“Obasanjo has bitten more than he can chew, he thinks he can break my spirit and make me beg him. It is a lie, I can never beg. The struggle is my life.
It is Allah that gives life and it is Allah that takes it. It is Allah that establishes sovereignty and it is Allah that brings it down. Obasanjo shall be brought down Insha Allah,” he stated.