Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF) Alhaji Muhajid Dokubo-Asari, has said that the people of the Niger Delta are not afraid of going to war against anybody or group who is ready to make war with the oil-rich region.

Dokubo-Asari, who spoke in a telephone interview with the Nigerian Compass on Sunday, was responding to the statements credited to some Northern leaders the North will make Nigeria ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan.

Some key northern leaders had last week threatened to make Nigeria ungovernable if Jonathan insisted on ruling the country beyond 2011.

They said it was the slot of the North that Jonathan was aspiring to take in 2011.

Among those who signed the statement were former Minister of Finance, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma; and Alhaji Tanko Yakassai.

Reacting to the statement by the key Northern leaders, Dokubo-Asari told the Nigerian Compass on Sunday, “The drums of war have been sounded by the Ciromas, the Tanko Yakassais, the Ali Mungonus, the Ibrahim Rabius, we have heard it.

“But let me tell them that we are not afraid of war! Let them come with their war.”

Asked why he has openly declared support for Jonathan, given that he is a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Dokubo-Asari said he was not in the party to sell my patrimony.

He said there was nothing wrong in his supporting Jonathan.

He said, “What is wrong if I support Jonathan?

“Who do you expect me to support?

“IBB (former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida), Buhari (former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari) or Ribadu (former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu)?

“I am not in ACN to sell my patrimony. I am in ACN to network with comrades whose ideologies, views and opinions are close to mine.

“I do not share the same ideological platform with Jonathan. He believes and sees himself as a Nigerian, while I do not.

“He avoids me like a plague to protect his political aspiration. I pray for him as a brother. Jonathan is my brother and I will stand by him any day, any time, whether I benefit from him or not. I have no apology to tender to you or anybody.”

Speaking on the bomb explosion in Abuja on October 1, 2010, Dokubo-Asari said 15 days to the explosion, the intelligent unit of the NDPVF uncovered the plot by Henry Okah to re-arm militants and to re-arm his criminal gangs in the region to foment trouble in the country.

Dokubo-Asari said, “Fifteen days before then (the bomb blasts), the intelligence unit of NDPVF had a stunning revelation and uncovered a plot by Henry Okah to re-arm militants and to re-arm his criminal gangs in the region.

“We intercepted large caches of arms that were being sent to his new recruits around the Bonny, New Calabar, Sombreiro and St. Bartholomew rivers. This information was promptly forwarded to the security agencies that Henry Okah was up to something.

“These persons in government and its agencies dismissed it, saying that I was a rabid hater of Henry Okah. And this information was passed by some unscrupulous top government officials to Henry Okah, that Asari had informed them that he, Henry Okah, was planning something. What a shame!

“I was still worried and sent warnings to them that Henry Okah was still up to something. A close associate of the President just dismissed it by saying, ‘Which time you and Henry Okah quarrel go end?’

“Henry Okah did not start today in his march to destroy Goodluck Jonathan and any outstanding voice in the Niger Delta, especially amongst his Ijaw kinsmen.

“When Goodluck Jonathan was chosen as vice-presidential candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Henry Okah sent his criminal gang to attack Yenegoa (the Bayelsa State capital) and nearly torched the Government House and proceeded to Otueke, and the country home of the then Governor of Bayelsa State – Goodluck Jonathan – was burnt.

“This is unknown to many people, that Henry Okah dispatched bombs to disrupt the 29th May 2007 presidential inauguration. Our intelligence intercepted it and made it available to the then vice-president-elect, now President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Henry Okah was responsible for the bomb blasts at the post-amnesty conference organised in Warri (Delta State), where most of the governors of the Niger Delta states were present.

“His grouse was that the governors of Bayelsa and Delta States said that the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) was dead and only existed on the Internet.

The bomb explosion caused the death of three innocent Niger Deltans, who were in no way related to the governors of Bayelsa and Delta States at all.”

Okah is on trial in South Africa over the claim by the MEND that it was responsible for the Abuja explosions.

From :Compass news