Former Niger Delta militant, Asari Dokubo, on Friday met with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, where he alleged that 99 per cent of oil theft and bunkering in the Niger Delta is done by the Nigerian military, notably the Army and the Navy.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting with the president, who he said has been a father figure to him for 30 years, Dokubo, while commending the political will so far displayed by Tinubu since his assumption of office, said even if one billion contracts are awarded to everybody in the Niger Delta to stop oil theft and bunkering, it will not work because of kingpins fully armed from the Army and the Navy.
He disclosed that he has volunteered to end the menace, knowing that he will be fully protected by the Tinubu’s administration.
His interaction with State House correspondents was captured by JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE.
You’ve just met with President Tinubu. What did you discuss with him?
We discussed on a wide range of issues, especially on security and oil thief in the Niger Delta. Myself and my brothers, I assured the President that there would be zero oil theft and vandalization in the Niger Delta. We’re going to work with the NNPC, PCN and the IOCs to make sure that oil theft is brought to zero.
I also want to say that oil theft is encouraged by the military. The military is at the center of oil theft and we have to make this very, very clear to the Nigerian public. Ninety-nine per cent of oil theft can be traced to the Nigerian military, the army and the navy especially.
The Army and the Navy intimidate the Civil Defence, who are by status, the people who are supposed to guard these pipelines. They receive a lot of money from NNPC, PCL and the IOCs and just across the corner, you will see a houseboat. A few metres from the house boat, you will see an oil bunkering refinery or tapping directly from oil well. It is very pathetic now. What was happening in the Niger Delta in the past eight years was unprecedented in the history of oil production anywhere in the world.
The vandals do not only attack the pipelines, they have migrated from the pipeline and have gone directly to the oil well heads and they take directly from the oil well heads. They set up haphazard facilities they call local refinery, artisan refinery. This is crime against humanity, because the livelihood of the people is being totally destroyed. And at every metre, you see a naval houseboat or an army houseboat stationed. So the main culprits are the Army and the Navy. And there are notorious naval commanders who are known to be kingpins of these bunkering activities. Even if they give one billion contracts to everybody in the Niger Delta, because these military men are armed from the Army and the Navy, nothing will happen.
The President has promised to take decisive actions to make sure that this does not continue, that it is brought to an end. It is very shameful. So I have volunteered to help, to assist and to do the things that are necessary to put a stop to this evil that is being perpetrated against the people of the Niger Delta, the oil communities and the whole of Nigerians.
On security, I want to clearly say that there are full-scale wars going on in different parts of this country. In the South East, the IPOB, ESN is waging a full-scale war against the government of this country, and many local governments, many communities are deserted. Schools are closed, hospitals are closed. In the same vein, in Niger, Zamfara, Plateau, Kaduna, Yobe, Borno – Boko Haram is just a tip of the iceberg. There is a full-scale war going on. And the blackmail of the Nigerian state by the Nigerian military is shameful. They said they do not have enough armament and people listen to this false narrative. They are lying. They are liars. I repeat they are liars because I am a participant.
I am a participant in this war. I fight on the side of the government of the Nigerian State in Plateau, Niger, Anambra, Imo, Abia, Rivers and in Abuja. Today, you are travelling to Kaduna on this road. It is not the army that make it possible for you to travel to Abuja or travel to Kaduna or vice versa. It is my men employed by the government of the Nigerian state stationed in Niger. Today, go to Baga, Shiroro, Wase, we have lost so many men, and in all these engagement, we don’t even have one per cent of the armament deployed by the Nigerian military. And we have had resounding success.
So this blackmail must end. They have enough resources to fight. Instead of fighting, they are busy stealing. They are busy making the government to spend unnecessarily. Where is Dogo, who was terrorizing Niger, Kaduna? Where is Dogo today? He is nowhere because he has been served his dish that he was serving others.
So let us be able to support the government. And don’t listen to these false narratives because somebody must tell the truth. We don’t have arms? An average person is carrying two magazines of AK 47 bullets, the Nigerian army is carrying inside their truck 20-30 cans. Two magazines of AK 47 is 25 rounds of ammunition. And 700 or 750 make up a can. They called it sardine. And they have 20, 25, 30, in their depot. They will leave at any slight attack. They will abandon these weapons for the bandits, the insurgents to take them, to capture them. So in actual fact, the insurgents are harvesting from the Nigerian military and police to further their insurgency. And most of these people are the actually insurgents? They’re mere criminals.
You go to some camps, will find 200 vehicles stolen from people. Who are the owners of these vehicles? They cut these vehicles into parts and sell them. You go to some places, you find that human beings parts are being brought out, they are put in coolers and sold. Human organ trafficking, etc, which the governor of Anambra State, Soludo has also attested to in one of his interviews.
So what I’m trying to say is this, I as a person who is in the know, even before the President came, I knew that we had never had any person like him aspiring for this position. I’m not flattering him now. I said before the primaries. I said it during the course of the election. I said it after the election. So all the forces of evil and darkness came together to fight to make sure that Ahmed Bola Tinubu did not become president of Nigeria. Because they are benefiting from the institution failure that is going on.
Why is the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) not working? Because there are people from here who go and collect all the money from NDDC. The NDDC MD and the board members only want to survive. Let me just take my bread and water; let them not sack me. At the Amnesty Programme, it’s is the same thing. They just go collect everything and it is the people that are sitting there that suffer.
How can somebody say N500 billion is being used to lift people out of poverty? Do you know how many industries that would set up? Do you know how many agricultural settlements that will set up? Where did the money go? How can somebody say we used $10 billion, almost N8 trillion to service the glutinous appetite of a few people like us at the expense of the masses?
And then NLC and TUC will come and say that they should give them palliatives. What is the percentage of members of NLC and TUC and viz-a-viz the total population of Nigeria? Why would we operate an apartheid system of rewarding a few people at the expense of the generality of the people? Why would they have palliative cushioning? The woman in Nogepeme, the woman at Kola who is fishing or the woman somewhere at Adahi who is farming, does she have that same palliative? Have we not been having this palliative? Did we not have PTF? Did we not have this roads maintenance agency, FERMA? They are all conduit pipes. They achieve noting.
The president should not listen to such advice. Channel the money to fix our education, health, road, agriculture. Don’t tell me that they’re going to give loans. Agricultural loan is being given by the Central Bank. How many people access it? A few people. They access billions but do they pay back?
Aviation loan is there. Somebody is given $10 million, $20 million, $100 million as loan to cushion the effect of what? How many Nigerians travel by air? Why would we carry the glutinous appetite of a few Nigerians who are not even up to one per cent and put it on the generality of the people?
The president is a firm person. I know him. Everywhere I went to campaign I always said, if Ahmed Bola Tinubu fails, hold me responsible. Because I have known him, I can stand in the gap and say this is Ahmed Bola Tinubu. I can take a bullet for him. And I came today just to say hello and to encourage him and to say we are with him and insha Allah, he is going to succeed.
You said your men are helping reduce crime in the society. Does it mean you have your personal army operating to deal with the bandits?
Nigeria had been engaging foreign mercenaries from other countries from Belarus, from South Africa to fight insurgency. Maybe you’re not aware. So why would Nigeria not engage in the same token locals who have the same wherewithal and are more effective and more conversant with the environment? We’re not the only one, Hunters Association, different people are engaged, civilian JTF are engaged to confront this evil that has enveloped this country. I don’t have a private army. I am assisting the government as a good citizen of this country to save lives. Since the time we went there, Kaduna road has been free, no more kidnapping, we are saving lives. I don’t have a private army and the Constitution does not provide for a private army.
You said you and your brothers have agreed to bring oil theft to zero. You also said the military, particularly the army and the navy are entrenched in this. How are you going to bring this situation to an end?
The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He is going to take decisive action to get these rotten eggs. It is not the whole Army and the Navy. There are a few who have this entitlement mentality, I better pass una, I get power pass una, I get people wey dey up wey cover me. The President is going to remove them and make it possible for the people of this country to benefit. For instance, Emefiele is gone, Bawa is gone. So more heads will roll – those who are standing as an impediment to the good and progress of this country. The President is going to kick them out. And when he does that, we will have all the encouragement to get ready the intel needed. All my brothers in the Niger Delta, all of us are for it.
You talked about a full-scale war going on in some parts of the country. You also mentioned the South-East and the IPOB issue. And some people have said that the only solution to that is a political solution, which will mean the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kalu. Do you share this view?
I don’t share in that. You encouraged people to kill other people. When the madness they call ENDSARS started, I was one of the people vocally opposed to that nonsense called ENDSARS. Then Nnamdi Kanu was walking free. What did he do? He poured petrol on the flames for ENDSARS. Now he has been caught. What of the people who have died? This is a criminal; he should face the law. As I’m talking, Nnamdi Kanu does not have any control over what is happening in the South East. Simeon Ekpe had come out, pretending that he is with Nnamdi Kanu. He has actually plotted a coup against Nnamdi Kanu to take over the leadership of IPOB. That is the truth of the matter. So releasing Nnamdi Kanu is rewarding criminality and rewarding gruesome murder of innocent people. He should face the law for the actions and the instigation he has carried out.
The people of Niger Delta, the boys there have been accused of being responsible for this oil theft and today you are telling us it’s the Navy and the Army. What do you have to say to that?
My dear sister, the people doing the bunkering have been there. A lot of people have come out to say it before. The people doing the bunkering are not our people. Because they cannot bring those big super cargo ships, vessels that are almost the size of this villa. They don’t have the resources. They are powerful cabals, most times operating from Abuja. And you saw it on television, where pipes are linked to export terminals. How will that be possible? There are powerful forces in place who think they are far stronger but they have met their match. And their match is President Ahmed Bola Tinubu. He is going to expose all of them and many people will be marching to Kuje and Kirikiri.
Do we believe that your men and Tompolo who got a mouth watering contract to supervise the pipelines surveillance with the immediate past government are working hand in hand?
Myself and Tompolo are not in the same field. He is guiding pipelines and I am not. I am speaking now because I know that the President will protect me because I am saying the truth. Under another president, they might not give you the protection. So, they might not give Tompolo the protection. You saw on television where Tompolo himself was accusing the military. So for us, I know this President. And I know this President is a stickler for the rule of law. We need all the money. Have you been to the United Arab Emirates? Have you been to Qatar? Go there and see what they have used oil to do. Why can’t we use our oil to do something? Where is the oil money going? It’s not me o! They say I talk very raw. Me I’m okay. I have four wives and I have 22 children