President of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari on Monday warned the North to ensure the Boko Haram Islamist sect embraces peace or prepare the region for war against the Niger Delta.
Urging the sect to remember that no one group has monopoly of violence, he said the Niger Delta would successfully isolate the North by closing up its access to the coast in time of war.
The former warlord was speaking with journalists in Abuja to voice his anger, and the Niger Delta’s, with persistent acts of terrorism by Boko Haram, and its recent call for the resignation of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“This small-small bombs they are throwing about; we don't make bombs, we buy bombs,” he said, boasting that he started arms struggle in the country.
He argued that the North needed peace in the country more than any other region, meaning it is in its own interest to prevent Boko Haram-orchestrated violence in the country from degenerating into another Civil War.
“It is the North that needs peace more than us. We carry the resources.
The coastal area is in our hands. People should tell the North. Even the president is in our hands,” he said. “They should stop this arrogance. The northern people should ask Buhari, Babangida and other leaders of theirs what they did with power when they had it for so long.”
He warned, too, that the Ijaws would take up arms should Boko Haram launch an attack against the president.
He condemned the sect’s call for the president’s resignation, saying the Ijaw race would have gone violent were it not for pleas by the same president.
“We are just postponing the evil day. The time to call a Sovereign National Conference is now.
“Why is the North opposed to a Sovereign National Conference? Why is the North opposed to State Police? Why is the North opposed to fiscal federalism?”
After promising the Delta’s protection of the president against any attack, he candidly advised him to reduce his overseas trips and concentrate on the work for which he was elected.
He equally advised Jonathan to develop the region beyond the amnesty programme, which he described as a “bribery of aggrieved people just to allow oil to flow.”
