Former leader of the Niger Delta militant group, Asari Dokubo, has issued warnings over the planned settlements of herdsmen in the southern parts of Nigeria.
According to him, such gestures are not welcomed as no individual from the south has gone to other parts of the country to forcefully take lands from indigenes over there.
Dokubo made the statement during a meeting which was held in Port Harcourt with the attendance of other Niger Delta leaders.
His reactions stemmed from the comments of the Coalition of Northern Groups, as well as the Northern Elders Forum.
Recall that the two associations have asked that herdsmen return to the North as their safety could no longer be guaranteed.
In his response, Dokubo vehemently stated that the North would be doing the South favour if such orders were followed as it is what the region has also been looking forward too.
He then asked Southerners from the Northern parts of the country to return home or face the consequences by themselves.
Read his full statement below.
“What has brought us here today is the dark cloud that is gathering. In 1967, we did not ask for war, war was imposed on us and millions of our people were killed. Our properties were destroyed and so many people until today are carrying the scars of that imposed war.
“Our people have not gone to Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Borno to ask that land be forcefully given to us or that our resources should be used to give us properties in the north. But northern organizations and northern individuals have come up to say we must surrender our land to them to create colonies on our land. Are you going to allow that?
We will not surrender one grain of sand of our sacred land to anybody. We will stand on our land and wait for you to come and carry out your threat and inshallah by the grace of God we will defeat you. We have heard that you have called your people to come back home. They should all go, we will assist them to leave because this is what we have been looking for all along.
“We call on our people, Igbo, Ibibio, Ikwerre, Ijaw return back home. If anything happens to you and these coward spines on you, you would have yourself to blame. We would not continue to risk our integrity and our pride because of you, return home now. We extend a hand of fellowship to our brothers in the middle belt who are suffering the same pain and deprivation as we do. We are with you in your hours of grief and pain and we will stand with you to the end.
“To our Yoruba brothers in Afenifere, and the leader of Afenifere, whose daughter has been gruesomely murdered by these Gambari invaders, we condole with you but this is the price we have to pay to wake up.”
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