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The police on Tuesday arrested the leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujaheedeen Asari Dokubo, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The police on Tuesday arrested the leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujaheedeen Asari Dokubo, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
His deputy, Mr. Takuro Beeson, who claimed to have accompanied him to the state police command headquarters on a 'friendly invitation," added that the NDVF leader had been taken to Abuja.
Although he said he could not explain why Dokubo was arrested, our correspondent gathered that it might not be unconnected with the rising tension in the Niger Delta.
A group, the Ijaw Youth Council, had on Friday threatened to attack Britons and British facilities in the Niger Delta if the British Police failed to release the Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was held in London on Thursday for alleged money laundering.
The threat forced the Presidency to put security agencies in the area on the alert.
Some of the multinational oil companies in the region were said to have withdrawn their British employees, especially those in Bayelsa State.
The NDVF is at the forefront of groups agitating for the control of oil resources by the Niger Delta people.
Narrating how the NDVF leader was arrested, Beeson said, 'By 12pm today (Tuesday) the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sam Adetunji invited him to his office. When we arrived, he said his attention was needed in Abuja.
'The two of us went to honour the invitation but when we got to the commissioner of police, I was asked to excuse them. Later, the commissioner put him in a car with siren and they took him away in my presence."
He condemned the arrest, warning that the NDVF members had resolved to disrupt oil exploration in the Niger Delta if the Federal Government failed to release Dokubo within 24 hours.
He said, 'We are going to shut down all the flow stations in Port-Harcourt and in the whole of the Niger-Delta if we don't see him within 24 hours.
'As I am talking to you, all our members have been mobilised for that purpose".
He absolved the NDVF of any blame any crisis in the Niger Delta, saying, 'Nothing has been happening in Port-Harcourt, nothing. Alhaji did not do anything to anybody."
A source close to authorities in Rivers State said the decision to 'invite" Dokubo was to extract a promise from him that his group would not engage in any act that could lead to a breakdown of law and order in the Niger Delta.
When the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Adetunji, was contacted at 2.29pm, he asked our correspondents to call back. Subsequent calls indicated that his phone had been switched off.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Ireju Barasua, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, could also not be reached.
However, a senior police officer said that Dokubo was arrested due to his position as a former president of the IYC.
Also on Tuesday, the Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa State said the arrest of the governor was a national disgrace.
Consequently, the party asked the Metropolitan Police to investigate the allegations thoroughly and make its findings public.
The Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Mr. Kikile Esuene, told our correspondents that if the allegation was true, it would have made nonsense of the clamour by the Ijaw for resource control and fairness in the running of the affairs of the nation.
Esuene, who condemned the threat by the IYC to attack Britons in the Niger Delta, however, said the governor should be treated fairly.
Also, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Alhaji Magaji Dambatta, said the arrest should serve as a deterrent to corrupt public office holders in the country.
Meanwhile, the Shell Petroleum Development Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited have advised their staff in the region to be cautious 'in line with worldwide standards."
THE PUNCH, Wednesday, September 21