Posted by By RAZAQ BAMIDELE on
Leader of the outlawed militant group, the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteers Force (NDVF) Alhaji Asari Dokubo believes that four men acting in concert with ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo derailed the Nigerian dream and must be brought to justice to face a firing squad.
* Ribadu, Iwu, Ehindero, and Are must face trial with Obasanjo
Leader of the outlawed militant group, the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteers Force (NDVF) Alhaji Asari Dokubo believes that four men acting in concert with ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo derailed the Nigerian dream and must be brought to justice to face a firing squad.
These are ex-chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Mr Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and ex-Director General of the State Security Services (SSS) Col Kayode Are (Rtd).
He made the declarations in an interview with Daily Sun in Lagos recently, singling out Ribadu as the most guilty.
He further speaks on other key national issues.
Excerpts
Fears for Nigeria
My greatest fear is for black man because I do not recognize Nigeria as my country. I see myself as an Ijaw man. My fear for the black man is that we are being left behind by all the races.
Recently, there was a G-20 meeting in the United States of America (USA) convened by the government of the USA under President George Bush Jnr. There was no black man there. We have Arabs. Saudi Arabia was there. We have Japan, China, India and Brazil. There was no black man and that includes the blacks in the Diaspora and blacks in Africa.
Now, this geographical expression the term Nigeria represents the highest collection of blacks in the world. And because this enclave has not been able to find its feet and provide leadership for the black, both in the Diaspora and in Africa, the black man is backward economically, technologically and socially.
And my greatest fear is that, a tradition has been introduced in black Africa that especially, when elections are conducted, the people are not allowed to vote, figures are cooked up and even where candidates win elections, they are not allowed to take office. In 2003, General Olusegun Obasanjo did not win election. He imposed himself on the people.
And they said, let us forget. The preachers went to town to say it is the will of God. For the Muslim, they say Allah knows best. So, we accepted it. In 2003, we were just seeing a glimpse of what would happen. And 2007 became worse.
Even where people won elections, the judiciary would get involved in manipulating the process. So, we had four key men working with Olusegun Obasanjo to achieve the circumventing of the electoral processes. Nuhu Ribadu is the most guilty of them all, then Maurice Iwu, Sunday Ehindero and Kayode Are.
Trial
These were the four people that ran this country aground. So, Obasanjo and the other four people should face trial because the greatest crime you can commit against the people is to take their mandate from them. That was the highest form of corruption. And Ribadu was the Chief Executioner of that process.
Now the constitution says the only time the right of the people can be taken away from them and prevent them not to vote is when they are in prison, when they are infants and not up to the age of voting, when they have lost the use of their mental capability either they are senile caused by sickness or by old age or when they are mentally deranged. They can, therefore, not vote. If they are ex-convicts, or they have been declared allegedly bankrupt, they can even still vote but can not be voted for.
That simply means all of us have become senile, insane and infants. That is what we have all become. I find it difficult to reconcile when people like Gani Fawehinmi, Wole Soyinka are supporting Nuhu Ribadu who ought to be executed by firing squad! If Mussolini was executed by the people of Italy by firing squad, Nuhu Ribadu ought to face firing squad.
But Ribadu fought corruption
Where did he fight corruption? He said Alao Akala is corrupt. But Alao-Akala can not be tried because he is in the good book of General Olusegun Obasanjo. He said he has files of 31 governors on corruption. But he was hunting only Dariye. He put Alameisegha in prison. He was hunting Tinubu. He was hunting Orji Kalu. All those who stood against Obasanjo were the people who should be tried for corruption by Ribadu.
Nuhu Ribadu was arrogant.
He was humiliating people who fell out of the grace of Obasanjo and anybody who was on the other side. The crime committed by him, we are going to face the reality today. Remember there is economic melt down. The rainy day when Obasanjo squandered the whole wealth of the country with the Okonjo Iwealas and all that, who were sent by the World Bank to Nigeria.
There is military political economic episionage in the world. People were sent from the World Bank controlled by the super capitalists like the USA and Britain who do not want us to catch up with them. They brought them here and manipulated our economy and destroyed it. The wealth that Obasanjo stole was well known. The inflated contracts and so on.
So, what we are trying to say is, Nigeria, as it is called, can not find its feet because truth and justice are not there. The prophet of Islam, may the peace of God be upon him, said no nation would progress if two different laws are made for different set of people. When a rich man steals, his hands would not be cut off. But when a poor man steals, you cut off his hands. That is what Ribadu and the people who worked under Obasanjo represented.
And these men, Maurice Iwu, Sunday Ehindero, Kayode Are and Nuhu Ribadu ought to face trial. The judgement should be by firing squade. Because their crime against the people, as I said earlier, was that they have turned all of us to insane people.
Ribadu's current travail
If I see him now, I will not say, ‘serves you right' because as a Muslim, I do not believe in the law of Karma. I do not believe in the law of retribution. It is only God that can judge.
Nuhu Ribadu's right at the convocation ceremony at Kuru was infringed upon. There was no need whatsoever for them to have bundled Ribadu out of the convocation ceremony. They sent him there. Nuhu Ribadu, in the first place is not even a Deputy Commissioner of Police. Nuhu Ribadu, by his rank ought not to have been Deputy Commissioner of Police, let alone Commissioner of Police talk less of Assistant inspector General of police.
It is wrong. When I came from Saudi Arabia, at my press conference, I said that the case of Ribadu should be revisited. He was not doing anything extra ordinary, if at all he was doing the job well. He was not even doing it well. But it was wrong to humiliate him the way they did because they sent him there for the course. If they had realized that he was not qualified to be there, they should have withdrawn him. But they did not. So, after going through the course for the stipulated period he was expecting his reward if he passed which was his certificate. But to make a public show of humiliating him as he himself did to people like Alameisegha and Tafa Balogun is not right. It is not right.
But as far as I am concerned, Nuhu Ribadu ought to go back to Chief Superintendent of Police CSP or Assistant Commissioner of Police ACP because that is where some of his course mates are. He should go back there.
Why the silence now
I don't think that I have mellowed down. The press came to know me in 2004 when in October 2003 I took to arms against the Nigerian state. I cannot die for Nigeria. I don't believe in Nigeria. But I can die for Ijaw, my nation. And I am ready to die for Ijaw nation, today, tomorrow and any day.
And I am not afraid of death because I know whether I fear death or not, I will still die. Whether I run or not, death will still catch up with me. God has destined that there would be a day I would be born and there would be a day that I would die. So, I can not run away from that. I will surely die one day.
The issues that people talk about are there. You can not be beating a dead horse. That is the case on Nigeria. Nothing is happening. There is no government. The government has totally failed. Nigeria is a failed state. The judiciary has failed. There is no judiciary in Nigeria. Law and order has totally collapsed. We are in a state of anarchy.
There is total anarchy. And it is even the people that are maintaining law and order. The ordinary people are maintaining law and order. The government has totally failed. A government that has not operated and implemented 2008 budget and has presented another budget, which is impeachable offence.
Niger Delta Ministry
This government with its abruptness is creating a ministry called the Niger Delta Ministry against the law. Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established by law. And it is a statutory body. It was not established with executive fiat. What is the difference between the Niger Delta Ministry and Ministry of Works? We have Ministries of Works and Transportation, yet there is no road. We have Ministries of Petroleum and Energy as well as the NNPC. Yet there is no refineries because some people are gaining from the prevailing status quo.
We are the only Oil Producing Country that does not have a functional refinery. Or is it the Ministry of Health that has no Minister? The Minister was sacked months ago. The President of this country goes to other countries for medical treatment! If he can not take care of his health here, how can he take care of another person's health? The first universal law is the law of survival. Self-preservation. If he can not treat himself here and he goes abroad, what if they give him lethal injection and he dies?
Could you imagine the King of Saudi Arabia being treated in America or the President of the USA being treated in Cuba? Or Fidel Castro being treated in America? Could you imagine it? But that is what is happening here. So there are lots of things that bring questions.
And the progressives have always advocated convocation of Sovereign National Conference, (SNC). We must sit down and until we sit down to talk, I tell you, no progress can be achieved. We have to sit down and talk.