Nigeria: Fresh Storm Over Dokubo-Asari
Akanimo Sampson
Bureau Chief,Port Harcourt
SHOCK waves ran across the Niger Delta, Nigeria's main oil and gas region, on Thursday afternoon, following claims by
the high command of the militants network that there was an attempt to assassinate their detained ''Supreme Leader''
Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.
Spokesperson for the militants' Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), Cynthia Whyte, claimed in a wired statement that they
received an intelligence report on the murder plot. She did not, however, disclose the source of the information.
The JRC which parades most of the dreaded militia groups, said in their statement, ''there was an attempted to murder in
cold blood, the flag bearer of the Ijaw and Niger Delta struggle Dokubo-Asari, on April 19, while in solitary
confinement in the gallows of the satanic Nigerian state''.
According to them, ''this murder attempt which was created in the style adopted for the killing of General Shehu Musa
Yar'Adua by the Abacha administration was orchestrated by the Secretary to the Bayelsa State Government, Boladei
Igali,the so-called Honorary Presidential adviser on Niger Delta Matters and a man in a hurry to please retired General
Olusegun Obasanjo''.
Continuing, they added, ''this attempt was masterminded via a conspiracy between hired assassin medical doctors of the
Nigerian state led by Boladei Ogali.
After long minutes of intense resistance, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari was assaulted by about four armed guards and
severely battered''.
''This act by the government of the Nigerian state might be the straw that will break the camel's back. We have in the
past few months been as restrained as any people can be. At this point in time, we wish to state that the Nigerian state
and its citizens therein must be ready for whatever happens. The hornet's nest has been stirred'', they said.
Meanwhile, the JRC is calling on all ''heroic combatants of the Ijaw and Niger Delta struggle to rise up and carry the
torch of battle to the corridors of the enemy. This is one too much''.
From Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, top government officials who do not want their names in print told our
correspondent that the alleged attempt on Dokubo-Asari's life could be part of a plan to disrupt the presidential
election in the oil and gas region.
In the mean time, they are suing for calm, promising that the state governor and vice presidential candidate of the
Peoples Democratic Party, Goodluck Jonathan, will wade into the matter.
ENDS