Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force(NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari, has said Henry Okah, operating under the alias of Gbomo Jomo and spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), was responsible for bank robberies, hostage-taking, extortion and other crimes in the Niger Delta.
Okah is under arrest in Angola over arms running and later moved to Equitorial Guinea to face charges of plotting to overthrow the country’s government in 2004, for which MEND has threatened to resume attacks in the Niger Delta region, alleging that he was framed by the Federal Government. Dokubo, who spoke with THISDAY in a telephone interview, said he was not a genuine fighter of the Niger Delta cause.
According to him, Okah was not a founding member of MEND, but was brought on board because he is an Ijaw man, but rather than fight the genuine cause, he turned to criminalities and refused to change his ways despite all efforts to reform him.
Dokubo alleged that Okah was particularly used by a former governor of River State who paid him N100 million monthly, and a former president, who he allegedly handled hatchet jobs for and in return, got their protection. “Henry Okah was not privy to the formation of MEND.
” He was paid N100 million every month from Rivers State money,” Dokubo alleged.