CHIBOK GIRLS: Niger Delta Community Faults Asari Dokubo, Clark For Attacking Governor Shettima

Members of Niger Delta, yesterday, expressed their anger over the comments made by Niger Delta elder, Chief Edwin Clark and former leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, (NDPVF), Asari Dokubo involving the Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima in the abduction of the over 200 Chibok school girls kidnapped on April 14 in the state.

It was reported in May that Asari Dokubo said the Chibok girls abduction is a sham to which the Governor replied.

Secretary General of the Niger Delta Peoples Forum, a socio-cultural body of all indigenes of the region in Borno state, Prince Stephen Ebri faulted their comments on the solidarity visit to Governor Shettima at the Government House in Maiduguri by the organisation.

He said:

“Your Excellency, we are worried so much by some of the utterances of our Niger Delta brothers like Asari Dokubo and elder like Chief Edwin Clark. Only recently, we read an advert by Chief Edwin Clark sponsored in the newspapers calling for the removal of the governors, saying all manner of things that are out of absolute and annoying ignorance.

Chief Clark said the Borno state government is not cooperating with the Federal Government. How can a government that is using resources to finance security agencies be accused of being uncooperative when we all know that it is the Federal Government that is supposed to fund the security?

We are angry and tired with these utterances that are making us very uncomfortable in a state that the people have been treating us with love and respect. This is a State Government that went as far as giving a political appointment to a son of the Niger Delta‎ from Delta State and that son works directly with governor under the governor’s office”, he said.

He further added: “This is a government that appointed an Igbo man as a cabinet member and that Igbo man is in charge of community relations, that Igbo man has been with Your Excellency for many years. Sir, anytime people from Niger Delta speak on Borno out of ignorance ee feel very ashamed because all that they say are not the truth of the ground realities in Borno State and some people assume that we from the Niger Delta share the hate views of some of these people.

We have had enough of them. They are trying to mislead Nigerians and they are making us unhappy in a place we have been happy for many years.

In the light of the foregoing, ‎we the the great ‎people of the Niger Delta in Borno State hereby disassociate ourselves from all utterances made against the government and people of Borno State. We are however committed to any meaningful goal of the Niger Delta people which do not compromise the unity,peace and progress of the entity called Nigeria.

The people of Niger Delta are reasonable, we are tolerant, we fight but we fight good courses and not the feather the embers of hate”.

Meanwhile Governor Shettima who said in May that "Borno state has seen evil times" following the abduction of the girls thanked the community for the visit, saying government will continue to identify itself with all resident regardless of their religious, ethnic and geographical affiliations while saying: “We are one people, the majority amongst us in terms of numerical strength, whether in tribe or religion must give sense of belonging to the minority. It is people like Elder Edwin Clark that do not really understand who we are and who we should be in this country. Power doesn’t last forever. Every opportunity you have is one that you must miss someday, however long.

He is 87, he should be a father to all, and he should champion the course of nation building and not sectional interest, if for nothing else, at least for his age. From the moral point of view, God gives some consideration to the youngest and the eldest.

Let us continue to urge him in a polite manner, to see Nigeria beyond his walking stick”