NIGER DELTA PEOPLES SALVATION FRONT (NDPSF)

13 Agudama St, D-Line, Port Harcourt

Website: www.akumafiete.org, Email:ndpsf@akumafiete.org

Mobile: 08039310668, 08077129569, 08027688711

Leader: Alh. Mujahid Dokubo-Asari

 ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF DOKUBO-ASARI’S DETENTION

 On September 20 2005, the undaunted leader of the Niger Delta struggle, Alhaji Mujahid Abubakr Dokubo-Asari, honoured an invitation that was extended to him by the commissioner of Police, River State command but on getting there the whole issue became a melodrama. After some moments of quizzing, the Police commissioner informed him that the inspector General of Police will like to have a word with him in Abuja. An appeal from him to be given some time to go and prepare for the journey was turned down as they vehemently insisted that there was already a plane waiting for them and that he was needed immediately. It was at this point that he knew that they were up to something. When the news of his cowardly arrest broke out, pandemonium overtook the street of Port Harcourt and subsequently, the creeks of Niger Delta.

However, it will be noteworthy to mention that the Niger Delta was relatively peaceful before the unnecessary, wicked and provoking arrest of Alhaji Dokubo-Asari though it was the peace of the mosquito and its victim. This was made possible because there was a peace deal in September 2004 between the Federal Government led by General Olusegun Obasanjo and the Niger Delta freedom fighters led by Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, after the armed battle that engulfed Rivers State and environs between 2003 and 2004. The facts of the crisis was that Dokubo-Asari as the enigmatic President of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) endorsed a press statement that said that elections did not take place in Ijawland in 2003, which implied that there was falsification of electoral figures in favour of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Consequently, the Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, Ateke Tom and General Obasanjo fell out with him. There were several attempts on his life which prompted him to fight back.

Furthermore, Alhaji Dokubo-Asari led Niger Delta militants disarmed and kept to all the terms of the peace accord but the accord was irresponsibly violated consistently by the Nigerian Government and its agents. They confronted him with treason charges without commencing trial, even one year after. So many irregularities have characterized the judicial process. These include: questionable replacement of the original trial judge with another judge from a different judicial division; sporadic movement from one detention centre to the other; the presence of Governor Peter Odili’s Wife, Justice Mary Odili in the panel of Judges of the Court of Appeal on the day of ruling against granting of bail to Dokubo-Asari even when it is known that her husband is his political foe; the ruling of the Court of Appeal that he was a threat to national Security even when there was no trial; and his recent movement from Police custody to S.S.S. custody. In furtherance of his keeping with the peace accord, he joined with other nationalist who share in the demand for a Sovereign National Conference to form the Pro-National Conference Organization (PRONACO) led by foremost nationalist and elder statesman, Chief Anthony Enahoro. PRONACO mobilized various ethnic nationalities, Civil society organizations and professional bodies to a peoples Sovereign National Conference which has concluded its deliberations and adopted its resolutions and draft constitution --which we stand by. In addition, the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), a militant organization started operating politically and peacefully as the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Front (NDPSF) seeking a political solution to the Niger Delta question. This has progressed to the level where the people of Rivers State are demanding for Alhaji Mujahid Abubakr Dokubo-Asari to run for Governor. 

Finally, I have taken pains to highlight all these facts so as to prove that the Government is responsible for the unrest in the Niger Delta following the arrest and detention of our indefatigable leader. The raid on oil installations the killings, the abductions of expatriate workers and the general insecurity in the Niger Delta are all responses to the gross violation of the term of the cease fire and the arrest and detention of the leader of the Niger Delta struggle. Nevertheless, there is a way out.

 OUR DEMANDS

 1.  The immediate, unconditional and irreversible release of our charismatic leader, Alhaji Dokubo-Asari.

2.  In the face of the shame and national disgrace that the presidency has brought the country and the revelation that they lack what it takes to resolve the national question, we ask for the dissolution of this Government and the setting up of a Transitional Government of National Unity (TGNU) to give recognition to the recently held PRONACO organized Sovereign National Conference and organize a Referendum on the draft resolution and constitution under the close supervision of the United Nations.

3.  Compensations should be paid to all the victims of government official brutality.

4.  The president of Nigeria, General Olusegun Obasanjo, should be tried by the International Court of Justice for Crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing against Ijaw ethnic group in the Niger Delta.

5.  The Auditor General of Nigeria should audit the financial transaction of this regime from May, 29,1999 to date, so that we can know how much have been gotten from the sale of crude oil and how it has been spent. This crude oil is gotten from our land yet we are oppressed.

6.  We call on all progressives globally to join us in pushing these demands.

 We remain undaunted in our effort to liberate our people.

 Aluta continua, Victoria Accerta!

Mark Olise                                              Boma Abiye-Suku

Director of Administration               Head of Media and Publicity.