Niger Delta Militants threaten renewed hostilities if Prof. Charles Dokubo is sacked as Amnesty boss

A Niger Delta militia group, the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers (RNDA), has reiterated its warning to renew hostilities in the region by attacking oil facilities, if a cabal in the presidency succeeds in removing Professor Charles Dokubo as Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP).

The coalition of nine militia groups warned of its preparedness to resume hostilities in the creeks, in which no oil facility or major oil pipeline in the Niger Delta would be spared. Speaking through “General” John Mark Ezon-Ebi, RNDA said it got from good authority that one of the senators and a minister from Niger Delta were lobbying the presidency to replace Dokubo with Dennis Otuaro.

It, therefore, urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to succumb to the desperate moves spearheaded by the minister because it would lead to another round of damage that would sabotage and cripple the nation’s economy.

“RNDA will let Tompolo and the so-called Dennis Otuaro to know that nobody has a monopoly of violence in the Niger Delta and that Professor Charles Dokubo should not be removed from the Amnesty office. That is the only pathway to peace in the creeks. Enough is enough of all these sponsored cheap blackmail,” it warned.

The group also used the opportunity to congratulate President Buhari on his victory at the Presidential Election Tribunal. RNDA noted that the judgement was a vote of confidence on Buhari as evident in his electoral victory, which was above political, religious, and ethnic divides across the country.

According to the militants, the judgement is not just a victory for President Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a party, but for all Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora, particularly Niger Deltans. They described the victory as a re-affirmation of his high level of integrity, zero tolerance for corruption and his genuine will to develop the long-neglected Niger Delta region.