The Mayor of Urhoboland and popular Ex-militant leader in the Niger Delta region, Eshanekpe Israel a.k.a Akpodoro, has called on the security agencies particularly the military to take the threats to shoot down military planes issued by the leader of the defunct Niger Delta Volunteer Force, NDVF Mujahid Asari Dokubo, seriously saying treating him with kid gloves will encourage and embolden other miscreants to toe same ignoble line.
Akpodoro said that he should be treated as a scapegoat for his attempt to undermine the power of the Nigeria state.
He stated this at a well attended stakeholders forum on Thursday in Abuja saying Dokubo has always been a recalcitrant militant who did not drop weapons at the declaration of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP saying the Nigeria military owes it a duty to protect the integrity and sovereignty of the nation at all cost.
He said the Nigeria army should go after Dokubo who he said is not different from the notorious blood thirsty bandit, Bello Turji, who has army of terrorists gathered against the state.
Emerald News reports that Dokubo in a now viral video had threatened to bring down a suspected military plane allegedly hovering around his settlement, a statement the Mayor considered a threat to national security and calculated attempt to undermine the nation’s security architecture saying, “nobody let alone Dokubo is bigger than the Nigerian state and for such reckless threat, the military should go after him.”
Akpodoro noted that Dokubo overeached himself and has chosen to challenge “our national might and should be immediately put in his appropriate pigeon hole by the Nigerian military.
Akpodoro insisted that the leader of NDVF should be reined in to tell the world where his armoury and weapons against the state are kept saying the threat he issued goes beyond mere flippancy as he called on all the security agencies in the country to ensure “no monster is allowed to rear its ugly head in the Niger Delta region.
“We are not oblivious of the threats posed by Dokubo in the region but let it be on record that I unequivocally state that, arresting or neutralising Dokubo should be done seamlessly.
“He has no followers other than the scanty rag-tag miscreants he weaponised for crimes and criminalities that he recently paraded on a show of force months ago while our military played the ostrich.
“The silence of the security agencies towards such confrontational disposition by non state actors are the reason there’s preponderance of crimes in our clime,” the former warlord stated.
Furthermore, the Gberegolor Ughelli South-born Mayor called on Dokubo to be bold enough to make himself available to the authority when called upon as he advised him to learn from the GOC’ High Chief Government Ekpemukpolo a.k.a Tomopolo who is the leader of all the level headed youths in the Delta region.
“Tomopolo has been in the forefront of building and fostering peace in the region and also expeditiously carried out his mandate to eliminate oil theft in the Nigerian waterways describing him as one of the most gentle, reticent, reserved and patriotic to the Nigerian state.
“Dokubo should go for tutorials from our respected GOC who is not given to flippancy and recklessness. Heavens will not fall if Dokubo is arrested or neutralised in the battlefield with the army should he carry out his threat of downing military planes.
“The youths of Niger Delta region have embraced peace and all queue behind the GOC but certainly, whoever chooses to confront the military does so at his own peril.”
The Mayor maintained that the National Security Adviser to the President, NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and the military should come hard on questionable characters who ply their trade in crimes and criminalities across the nation.
“A jailbird like Dokubo should not pose any threat to our military institution. He boasts of his power to overrun the military and he should be properly handled,” Akpodoro stated.
