ABUJA—Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Asari Dokubo yesterday approached a Federal high court sitting in Abuja with a request to invalidate the amnesty granted by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to Niger Delta militants.
He is claiming that though Mr President has the powers under section 175 of the 1999 constitution to grant amnesty. He said such pardon is for convicted criminals and not for political agitators like himself.
He said since most of the militants whose names appear on the list of the beneficiaries of the presidential pardon have never been charged to court for any offence known to law or convicted of same, he said President Yar’Adua misapplied his constitutional powers and therefore the pardon so granted is null and void.
He is inviting the Federal high court to pronounce on the validity of the said amnesty.
Hear him on the amnesty package: “First, I have never commited any crime in my life for which I’ve been convicted, so under section 175 of the 1999 constitution, the President of the Nigeria State cannot grant me a pardon, and as such the pardon he is trying to grant me is null and void.
“The government of Nigeria State brought me to court, unjustly jailed me for almost 22 months, they went fishing for evidence and finally they granted me bail without my appearance in court.
“And if the government does not want to pursue the case, the established mode of resolving that, is for the government to discontinue my prosecution. “It will be wrong to criminalise me by saying that they have offered me amnesty, because by so doing if I accept the amnesty I would have agreed that I was a criminal and that was why I accepted amnesty”.
Asari Dokubo is a spent force as far as the Niger-Delta is concerned. However, nobody should prevent him from seeking redress in the court of law if he feels his fundamental human right has been trampled upon.
Meanwhile, MEND, please allow Hurricane Moses to fight for us the oppressed Nigerians. Unlike the biblical Moses, this Hurricane Moses would take us to the promised land where every region can grow according to its human and material resources. Period.
Mr ZED2A u most not address Asari like that u think he is a militant? like those criminals you support who call themself freedom fighter, freedom fighters for who me or you. i think you are one of them or you benefit from their activity becos they say no smoke without fire
Asari, go and settle with Mend as Nigerian court has nothing to offer you.
TO MEND:
Nigeria is still lifting about 4litres bpd and you must not allow these last drops to tarnish your enviable height.
It is your land and you know where the 4 litres are right now, so, shake off the edges once and for all even if you will have to mobilize from all formations.
Some of these profanities as being expressed here only go to show an uttermost extremity which are further evidence that you cant stop a child from crying mostly when well beaten.
I know it is suggestive of the growling of the habitual blog animals. As usual, disregard them and simply make your mission total.
If my memory and archive wouldnt fail me, you promised the oppressed people from the Niger Deltaland, Igboland and other Nigerians that oil and gas will be brought to zero if true federalism is not addressed in Nigeria. I hope this position still stands.
At the back of your mind must be the commencement of phase2 immediately production is brought to zero hopefully in few hours.
There are no two ways about it, we will rather die than accepting the slave tag. You are victors and your dictations shall be food in the mouth of the thievery Nigerian estate.
God has finally led us into his promised “land”.
Asari is a hoodlum as well as Okah. Inspite of this they have rights. No one can deny them these rights. What is the implication of the amnesty? Does it in anyway translate to development of the Niger Delta? who will be the true recipients of the N50b amnesty budget. does it also address the plight of the victims of the millitants? These need to cleared. Asari is right to seek clarification.
If you ask me, honest and deliberate approach to the development of the area will on its own, place these millitants on the block. Instead of amnesty, the federal government should put development on ground that would take care of millitancy.
maybe amnesty will bring peace to the niger delta and pave the way for development in the region too and i think dokubo does not want that, he only cares about the crude he is siphoning due to the chaos experienced in the niger delta pls give peace a chance dokubo its other militants that are dead because of all these not you and i dont think any of your closest relative
long live niger delta
long live nigeria