EX-MILITANT LEADER ACCUSES POLICE CHIEF OF N.2M BRIBE
Ex-militant leader, Chief Bibopiri Ajube, is at daggers drawn with an Assistant Commissioner of police [ACP], whom he accused of withdrawing four mobile policemen attached to him over his failure to sustain a N200,000 monthly welfare package.
Consequently, he says his life is in danger, and therefore, urged National Security Adviser [NSA], General Owoye Azazi, and Inspector General of police, Alhaji Hafiz Ringim, to take urgent steps to ensure adequate protection for him so as to avert a scenario such as the cold-blooded murder of a repentant militant leader, the late Soboma George in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Speaking with newsmen on Thursday in Abuja after submitting a petition to the office of the IGP at Louis Edet House, Ajube, who hails from the Arogbo-Ijaw kingdom in Ondo State and also known as General Shoot-at-Sight, alleged that his police security details given to him on the orders of the late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua after the Federal Government's offer of amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta, were recently withdrawn for inexplicable reasons on the orders of the Assistant Commissioner of police in charge of operations at the state police command, Mr. Danjuma Garba, who he alleged, was playing out a plot to exterminate him.
In the petition to IGP signed personally by him and dated May 25, 2011, the former MEND commander claimed that while he had hitherto considered monetary requests of the senior police officer as personal, it eventually became obvious that the requests were made to lay the foundation for the execution of a hidden agenda.
He alleged that his problem with ACP Garba started when he rebuffed suggestions by the police officer to orchestrate fresh crises in the riverine areas of Ondo State so as to make money from the state government even after he had embraced peace, a path, he said, was not in tandem with his resolve to enthrone sustainable peace and development in the troubled Niger Delta region.
Part of the letter reads: 'I make bold to say that Mr. Garba's mien as an antagonist, rather than a partner in maintaining peace, particularly in the riverine area of Ondo State, was noticed last year when I shunned his suggestion to engage in acts inimical to the prevailing peace for pecuniary reasons. On two occasions, he made outright suggestions on the need to orchestrate crises in the riverine area in order to make money from Ondo State government. I shunned such evil suggestions on each occasion.
'Late last year, he again approached me on the need for me to 'deliver' to him on a monthly basis, the sum of N5m in order to provide me with choice mobile policemen of any number…My answer to that was a simple No. Curiously, Mr. Garba threatened to withdraw the PMF personnel attached to me on the ground that I deserved no such privilege. He has severally summoned police escorts attached to me, demanding money from them and threatening to withdraw them because he learnt I have been giving them money and other benefits.
'Barely two weeks after I had gathered from sources that Mr. Garba was planning to use policemen to harass me, he has suddenly withdrawn the PMF personnel attached to me for unknown reasons, claiming he has instruction from above. The reason for this carefully rehearsed action is not far from the fact that I am a target who should be dealt with before the inauguration of Mr. President on May 29, 2011'.
Garba, who spoke with Saturday Sun Thursday over telephone, admitted that Ajube's police details were recently withdrawn, but said it was based on a directive from the IGP to withdraw policemen from persons not statutorily entitled.
He explained that although the ex-militant leader like all others who accepted the Federal Government amnesty programme was provided police protection during the tenure of the immediate past IGP, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, the incumbent police boss, Alhaji Hafiz Ringim, had ordered the immediate withdrawal of all policemen attached to individuals who were directed to re-apply to be granted such a privilege based on outlined criteria.
But the man thinks I am the one who did it; he doesn't know that his application was not approved by the IG. On the issue of N200,000 monthly welfare he is claiming, I have not collected a dime from him. If it was true, why am I not in support of policemen being attached to him illegally?'. he queried.