The leader
of the Niger Delta Volunteers Force (NDVF), Alhaji Dokubo Asari, has said that
the presidential pardon for former Bayelsa state Governor, Diepreye
Alamieyeseigha, was in order.
Speaking in an interview, Dokubo threw his weight behind
President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision saying those criticizing him are being
“mischievous.”
According to him, “the President has the right under the
constitution to exercise the prerogative of mercy.
“And because the right to do this is constitutional, it makes
the view of anybody, which may be to contrary, null and void and of no effect
whatsoever because it is done on the basis of the right granted and protected
by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Secondly, the whole world knows that the money stolen by
Alamieyeseigha belongs to the people of Bayelsa State.”
“The people of Bayelsa State have forgiven him long time ago and
have rehabilitated him.
“In fact, the majority of Ijaw people feel that Alamieyeseigha
was unjustly victimised.
“What we have discovered is that the majority of the people
criticising the pardon because of politics stole much more than what
Alamieyeseigha stole and they are walking free.
“Go to any state and look into their financial records, come
back and tell me if their money have never been stolen in a manner that is even
worse than the celebrated case of Alamieyeseigha. “What do you say of the
people who are allowed to do plea bargaining and they are walking free? But we
are saying that, if we want to fight corruption, it should be holistic. All the
governors who have ruled any state since 1999 should tried,” he said.
On the ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term
in office in 2015, the former Ijaw Youth Council President said that even
though he was not a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) member, the South-south
region will have “two terms of uninterrupted presidency. It is a constitutional
right for Goodluck Jonathan to go for a second term.”
Apparently referring to the Northern leaders, he stated that, “
all the people who are talking, since 1956 when self-rule started in Nigeria ?
“What have they done to change the face of the country like
other countries that got independence with us at the same time, like Malaysia,
which was also a British colony like us; like Singapore ?
Listing the achievement of his kinsman, Dokubo said, “ t he
Benin/Shagamu Expressway has changed from what it used to be. Jonathan made it
possible.
“Now, people travel smoothly on it. Our airports at a point in
time were looking like slaughter houses. See what is happening in the airport
or aviation sector today. Go to Kano Airport, I flew from there. Go to other
airports across the country. The railway has been on its kneels for many years.
Today, for the first time in many years, trains go from Lagos to Kano. These
are evidence that people can not wish away.”
On the call for a national conference, he said, “I am all for
it. There should be a Sovereign National Conference where we would sit down and
the decision of this conference should be put to a plebiscite and the outcome
upheld.
Source: Peoples Daily
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