"Nigeria will be history if I'm arrested" - Asari Dokubo

 
Asari Dokubo promises to match ” violence with violence, intrigues with intrigues” if he is arrested.
Following calls for his arrest after he declared that Nigeria will be ungovernable if President Goodluck Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015, Asari Dokubo, the leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, has said that he is not afraid to be arrested.
During a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, Mr. Dokubo further threatened that Nigeria “will be history” if he is arrested.
“The last time Obasanjo arrested me, my arrest reduced Nigeria oil production to 700,000 barrels per day. This time, it will reduce it to zero barrel and we will match violence with violence, intrigues with intrigues. We are ready for them. Goodluck Jonathan will complete his tenure of two terms, whether they like it or not,” Mr. Dokubo said. “I am daring them to arrest me if they can. If they don’t, they are cowards and shame on them.”
Mr. Asari-Dokubo was responding to calls by Babangida Aliyu, Niger State Governor, and members of the House of Assembly, for his arrest and prosecution after his earlier press conference.
The House of Representatives has also asked the Nigerian Police to investigate the statements made by Mr. Dokubo, an ally of President Jonathan; and a similar one made by Kingsley Kuku, a presidential adviser.
Several other Nigerians and groups including the Nigerian Labour Congress have asked Mr. Jonathan to rein in Mr. Dokubo.
“I stand by my statement which I made in my early press conference. There will be no peace, not only in the Niger Delta, but everywhere, if Goodluck Jonathan is not president by 2015,” he said.
The former President of Ijaw Youth Council said that some northern leaders had, in the past, threatened war and break-up of Nigeria.
“In 2010, one Lawal Kaita said and I quote: ‘Anything short of a Northern President is tantamount to stealing our Presidency. Jonathan has to go and he will go. Even if he uses the incumbency power to get his nomination on the platform of the PDP, he would be frustrated out. The North is determined, if that happens, to make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan or any other Southerner who finds his way to the seat of power on the platform of the PDP against the principle of the party’s zoning policy.”
Mr. Asari-Dokubo stated that Mr. Kaita’s utterances was a precursor to the recent havoc and attacks on military barracks by insurgents.
“Buhari made this statement in 2011, he was never arrested and nobody ever called for his arrest,” said Mr. Asari-Dokubo. “In other countries, former leaders are being tried, but here, a man who overthrew a legitimate government, continues to threaten us with blood and nothing has happened.”