Asari Dokubo Condemns Niger Delta Amnesty, As MASSOB Members Confront Police In Owerri

Alhaji. Asari Dokubo, the leader of the Ijaw Youth Council, 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.
—DailyTimes