Once Terror of Nigerian Oil, Former Militants Dokubo-Asari Back Jonathan
Dokubo-Asari, the former leader of the militant group, the Niger Delta
People’s Volunteer Force, told Lagos-based Silver Bird Television that
if the president didn’t run for another term, he’d be barred from ever
returning to the Niger delta.
As the Islamist group Boko Haram intensifies attacks in northern Nigeria, former militants in the Niger River delta who once cut oil production by almost a third have become some of the government’s biggest supporters.
Militant commanders like Government Ekpemupolo have gone from targeting Nigeria’s oil industry, riding around in speed boats with automatic weapons and explosives, to protecting it. He now runs the Global West Specialist Ltd. security company that has a $115 million contract with the National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.
Ekpemupolo is one of a group of former militants, including Ebikabowei Victor Ben and Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who are prospering under the rule of President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s first leader from the region that’s the heart of Africa’s biggest oil industry. They form the backbone of support for Jonathan, 57, in the area as he seeks re-election in February, and have vowed to resist attempts by some opposition lawmakers to impeach him.
“We know what they’re doing and we’re watching them,” Reuben Wilson, a former militant and president of the Peace and Cultural Development Initiative lobby group for ex-combatants, said in a Nov. 22 e-mailed statement. “They should not push us to the wall, because if they do, we shall react.”
Before Jonathan announced he would seek re-election, Dokubo-Asari, the former leader of the militant group, the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, told Lagos-based Silver Bird Television that if the president didn’t run for another term, he’d be barred from ever returning to the Niger delta.
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