May 31, 2015 : Uche Onyema
Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Muhajid Dokubo-Asari
| credits: file copy
| credits: file copy
Leader
of the Ijaw Youth Council, Mr. Asari Dokubo, has condemned the amnesty
granted to the ex-Niger Delta militants by the late president, Umaru
Yar’adua.
According to him, this was a bribe to
allow oil flow from the Niger Delta region to the North. He said that
was the reason he rejected the offer.
Dokubo, who gave the clarification
during the 2015 MASSOB day celebration, held in Owerri, Imo State, also
faulted the national conference organised by the Federal Government,
insisting that the exercise did not represent the views of the Niger
Delta region that is yearning for a referendum.
“It
only represented the views of the rest of the country. Let us be
allowed to have a referendum. We have the right to hold a referendum on
where we want to go,” he argued.
He described MASSOB and his group as
partners in progress who are moving in the same direction to arrive at a
common destination as one people and nation.
Dokubo, who faulted the last general
elections in the country, decried the pace of growth and development of
the nation over the years, noting that there should be massive
infrastructural provision to stimulate the economy with conscious and
unpolluted efforts to bring about industrial growth and job creation.
Meanwhile, members of MASSOB had a
confrontation with the police at the Assumpta Roundabout while riding in
convoy to the state capital for the celebration.
An eyewitness account had it that the
police who had stationed their vehicles at the popular Control Post,
Owerri, asked the MASSOB members to retreat but they refused and were
teargassed by the police.
It was said that MASSOB members, who
were numbered over 500, had hauled stones at the police, who shot in the
air to scare them away.
Meanwhile, the Imo State Commissioner of
Police, Austin Evbakvbokun, while confirming the incident, said that
the police halted the movement of the MASSOB members to the state
capital because they do not have a permit for such gathering.
He added that the group conducted itself
in a disorderly manner, carrying insignias, which were not of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, thus necessitating the prompt action of his
men to stop them.
0 comments:
Post a Comment