A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Monday, disclosed its plan to write world leaders over the failure of the Federal Government to arrest prominent Niger Delta leader and former agitator, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, despite glaring evidence that he is a threat to the Nigerian state and the Nigerian people.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said it was concerning that the administration of President Bola Tinubu seemed to be afraid of Asari-Dokubo despite that the ex-agitator is threatening to destroy the country if arrested for unlawful possession of assault rifles and threat to the lives and property of Igbo people in the country.

“It is worrisome that the President is busy wining and dining with Asari-Dokubo whilst he releases a cocktail of threats and insults to the institutions of government including the DSS, the Army and the military establishments. This is unbelievable and can only happen in a banana Republic,” HURIWA said, adding that “Tinubu government would be creating a monster out of Asari-Dokubo who dared the military to arrest him and he would crumble Nigeria’s oil production to zero.”

HURIWA had previously issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the Federal Government to arrest Asari-Dokubo over his suspected link to the violent phenomenon of 'unknown gunmen' in the South-East or risk unprecedented protests that would reverberate all over the country.

Recall Asari-Dokubo, who visited Tinubu last month, had in a viral video, brandished multiple AK-47 rifles and threatened to kill Igbos because they supported Labour Party’s Peter Obi in the February 25, 2023 presidential poll against the ex-militant’s preferred candidate in the person of Tinubu, the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress.

For failing to heed HURIWA’s call to arrest the Niger Delta ex-militant leader, the group queried: “Is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu afraid of Asari-Dokubo so much so that he is threatening to destroy Nigeria?

“We call on the President to immediately disarm this Asari-Dokubo and his mercenaries before he becomes like the Wagner founder in Russia,” insisting that “the Federal Government must take steps to rein in Asari-Dokubo and his threats against the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The statement added that should the federal government continue to be adamant in arresting Asari-Dokubo: “HURIWA will be writing to world leaders on these threats to Igbos and Nigeria by Asari-Dokubo and we are asking all Nigerians to take interest in how the Federal Government, beginning from Muhammadu Buhari's administration, to the current dispensation, is building a frankestein monster out of Asari-Dokubo.”

HURIWA explained that because of Asari-Dokubo’s threat to also attack its members if it dares embark on protest because of federal fovernment’s failure to arreast him, the group would restrategise rather than expose their members to danger since wit was certain that the federal government would not Asari-Dokubo.

“He has also threatened to attack us if we stage protests against him. Let the Nigerian Government take action as soon as possible. We are meeting with other CSOs to restrategise our next move, keeping in mind the need to keep our members safe from attacks by a man who publicly confesses that he is armed with deadly weapons.

Certainly, if we proceed to stage protests as contemplated and Asari Dokubo attack us using his armed mercenaries, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not bring him to justice given that it is glaring that he is actively working for Bola Ahmed Tinubu. So, we will take a decision that wouldn't imperial the lives of our members given the threats by Dokubo to shed blood of protesters as coded in his recent diatribe against HURIWA.

“We call on the Department of State Services, the Nigerian Army, and the Nigeria Police Force to provide protection for citizens staging peaceful protests to stave off the occurrence of violence been unleashed as threatened by Asari Dokubo,” the statement added.

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