Ex-Niger Delta warlord, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, has raised alarm over alleged arrest of two of his cousins by the Nigerian Army.
Dokubo, in a statement on Monday said his cousins were arrested from his Opuama country home in Harris Town, in Asari-Toru local government area of Rivers by soldiers who stormed in four trucks who whisked them away to the Port Harcourt barrack of the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army.
The ex-militant leader alleged that the Army has already prepared, “trumped up charges against one of my cousins as being one of the Boko Haram insurgents who escaped from the North East region of the country. They took two of my cousins away. Now I sent somebody to the Barracks, but he was told that they are charging Muhammed Asari as somebody who escaped from Boko Haram.
“How can an Ijaw man be a member of Boko Haram? I am sending my Lawyer again to meet them. I learnt they have handed them over to military Police.”
The Nigerian Army, 6 Division has not reacted to the latest allegation.
But it would be recalled that the Nigerian Army has always maintained that the institution under the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.Gen. Tukur Yusuf Burutai is ”apolitical, neutral insist on ethics of the profession and globally accepted best practices “.
Meanwhile, the Elders’ Forum of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, Eastern Zone, has condemned the harassment, intimidation and reported embarrassment on two sons of Ijaw land, HRH King Michael Ateke Tom and Alhaji Alabo Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, in the past six or seven days by unidentified officers of the Nigerian Army.
In a statement signed by Comrade Jim Opiki, Media and Publicity of Committee, Elder’s Forum, IYC, Eastern Zone, cautioned: “For the records, HRH Michael Ateke Tom, the Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom in Wakirikeland of the Ijaw Nation is the Sekuro of Ijaw land, while Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari is the Edi-Abali of Kalabari. Asari was the National Vice and later President of IYC Worldwide. This duo deserves to be treated respectably.”
