Police arrest sister, 15 others
From Lemmy Ughegbe, Abuja
IT was a distraught Asari-Dokubo nuclear family of three people that witnessed the trial of their breadwinner, Mujahid, at the Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday.
Justice Baba Keuwumi, with the consent of both parties, adjourned the matter till November 10 for definite trial.
Speaking with The Guardian outside the court premises, the six-year-old son of Dokubo, Ameen, who was brought with his five-year-old sister, Habiba, said his father was a good man.
"My father is a good man. He did not do anything bad. He is not a bad person. He defends good people".
While Ameen was speaking with The Guardian, his aunt, elder sister of Dokubo and over 15 members of the Niger Delta Youth Volunteer Force (NDVF) were being arrested and thrown into a police lorry.
Meanwhile, human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), who may take over the defence of Dokubo, condemned the arrest and trial of the militant. Fawehinmi was seen being briefed by the wife of the detained activist, Hajiya Muhajidat Asari-Dokubo. A lawyer in Fawehinmi's chamber, Adindu Ugwuozor, confirmed that the chambers had been briefed to offer legal services to the accused person.
Fawehinmi spoke to journalists on the activist's trial. The encounter went thus:
What is your position on his arrest?
It was bad, very bad to have arrested him for what he has said. I've been warning this country times without number. When in 1966, February 10th, Isaac Adaka Boro and the others were arrested for declaring Niger Delta Republic because of the poverty of their people and the way their people were being treated in the Niger Delta, they prosecuted Adaka Boro, sentenced him to death and the death sentence was commuted by the Supreme Court and he was sent to the war front. What happened to him in the warfront during the civil war, nobody knows. He tried to use force to extricate his people from the clutches of poverty and neglect.
"Ken Saro-Wiwa came. He did not use any force. He used just palm leaves and leaves of the trees. People were carrying those leaves in their thousands protesting against the poverty in Niger Delta, who are the drivers of the Nigerian economy. The whole of this country is dependent on the Niger Delta. Yet they took Ken Saro-Wiwa for six months; we were there. Ken Saro-Wiwa and his men were ordered to be hanged. Not only were they hanged in 1995 November, the government of this country poured acid on their dead bodies to dehumanize them. The plight of the Niger Delta people cannot change. They contribute the entire money of the resources of this country on oil into the coffers of Nigeria. What we give them back is repression, repression. This young man now is saying that what is going on is bad. Rescue us from the poverty and the degradation you have placed our people. All the Olusegun Obasanjo government is doing now is putting handcuffs in his hands and manacle on his feet. That is the third time. That's the third time. You did it to Adaka Boro, you did it to Ken Saro-Wiwa, now you are doing it to Dokubo. Let us be very careful in this country.
What are the possible implications of his arrest?
This is not a just government. Even the anti-corruption he says he is fighting, yet he is selective. Okay, we agree it's selective. But the only painful thing about the Niger Delta is that their leaders, their governors are equally guilty of misdeeds.
Their leaders are also enemies of the Niger Delta people. They have turned resource control into pocket supporter control. They took the money allocated to their people who are in poverty, changed the money into foreign currency and paid this money abroad, in South Africa, in the West Coast of Africa, in America and in Europe. Example is Chief (Diepreye) Alamieyeseigha. How can a sane governor be buying a wrist watch of $2.5 million translated to N345 million when your people cannot even make ends meet, they can't find jobs, they can't find water, they can't get electricity, their children cannot go to school, they cannot deliver their hospitals; and all we see is that they take this money out of this country. They should find a way of getting all those leaders who have cheated their people in the Niger Delta.
They are talking of section 308. I've never been in favour of section 308. Right from 1999 when they almost killed me in the premises of the court on September 30, that no governor should have immunity against criminal investigation. I brought that battle to the Supreme Court and in May 2002, I won in Supreme Court. But for my action, they would not be investigating governors today. Of all those in government who are making efforts to rescue Nigeria from the morass of indignity is one man they call (Mr. Nuhu) Ribadu. I have the greatest respect for him. I am convinced he means well, and I believe he is doing well in respect of getting these people at the top to pay for their misdeeds and answer for their criminality. The (Independent Corrupt Practices Investigation Commissioner) ICPC is a total failure. (Economic and other related Financial Crimes Commission) EFCC is the only organisation I reckon with now, and it's not just the organisation, its leadership. Ribadu has transformed the fighting of the Nigerian people into not giving up, and I think he deserves kudos for what he has done.
So at the moment, my suggestion is that I know Dokubo is not fighting for Alamieyeseigha. Dokubo is not supporting the corruption of their leaders. He is even fighting their leaders, fighting. (Governor Peter) Odili, fighting Alamieyeseigha. So, why should he then be treated in this manner, if Obasanjo believes that crusade against corruption should be fought? Why should he bring Dokubo to this court? Why should he be treating Dokubo this way? Dokubo is doing nothing different from that of Ken Saro-Wiwa that his people should be extricated from the clutches of poverty and hunger and pain. For God sake, let the boy go.
The accused person's wife Muhajidatu Asari-Dokubo also spoke with journalists.
The encounter went thus:
Your husband has just been charged with treason, what is your reaction?
Whatever treason charge, for you to charge an innocent man, a man who has been granted amnesty, who has been pardoned, that means they want to kill him, because prison is very distinct. You cannot charge a man with treason when he is not carrying guns. He is not carrying any ammunition with him. He is not fighting. Alhaji Dokubo-Asari is an innocent man. He has not committed any crime. He has no criminal record in any police station or any court. He has never smoked in his life. He has never been drunk in his life. He is fighting for the Niger Delta.
How are you coping with your husband's absence?
I am not coping well. You can see I'm tattered. My children are crying daddy; daddy because they don't know what their father has done for them to have taken him away.
Keyamo also expressed concern over the development. His encounter with journalists went thus:
Treason, that is a serious offence that carries a maximum penalty of death. What is you reaction?
He has told me that he is prepared to lay down his life to be sure that all the ethnic nationalities are free once and for all from this very stranglehold of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the ethnic nationalities. He has said that his forefathers did not sign any treaty, did not make any agreement to be part of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That was an imposition in 1914.
And so, we are not going to file all kinds of objections. This is going to be a political cum legal trial. We are going to bring all the treaties that the Ijaw kings signed with the British people, allowing them to come into Nigeria. They did not concede any right to the British to merge them with any other ethnic group, and so we are going to go back to basics.
All we have are completely oppressive laws and after you made the oppressive laws merging them as part of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the next thing you do is to take their resources away and give to the centre. We are saying that we want equity; we want justice; all the lawyers, the team of lawyers you see here today, they are also volunteer lawyers. We are volunteering our services to make sure our people are free once and for all. So, this trial is an ethnic trial.
Why didn't you file any bail application for your client?
Because we are not concerned about any freedom. Let us not make any mistake about this. We are not concerned about freedom. He has said so. We are concerned about the liberation of the Niger Delta; we are concerned about the liberation of all the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, especially the minorities and the oppressed. So, we are not concerned so much about that. We made it clear. He has agreed with us. He has also agreed with us that we should not bring all kinds of frivolous applications to delay this trial. Let the Nigerian state bring all they have and we shall put them on the spot.
Are you not worried that he might stay so long in jail?
We are saying that it is not the sacrifice we make. This is not a tea party. You think he went into the creeks thinking that he will be singing halleluyah at home today? He knows he will be in prison, he knows he has to make some sacrifices; he knows he has to pay some penalties and we are all prepared. They clamped down on some groups yesterday; they have started clamping down on the Ikwere groups, they started clamping down on all the groups. The Federal Government has bared its fangs and we shall make those fangs impotent and ineffective.
Do you see some ethnic colouration in the clamping down on some groups because you've not mentioned any group in the Southwest or the North?
The government has always shown aversion, complete aversion for the minorities. Remember the first thing it did about the 13 per cent derivation, that it wanted to even cut it down by the logic of the onshore offshore dichotomy. Even the 13 per cent they did not want to pay, and we are saying that that is unfair. It is unjust. Look at all the charges today, they are political statements we made that Nigeria will disintegrate if you don't give us justice. What is treasonable about that? Just recently, the same charges were brought against (Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra) MASSOB in Lagos. It was this same argument that the proof of evidence does not support the charge; that was what I used to throw away those charges against the MASSOB members. We are also going to do that in this respect because the proof of evidence they will serve on us will not support the charge. I can assure you they will not support the charge.
