‘Buhari has declared war on Ijaws’

Ebimobowei Oguma, president of a group known as Delta Ijaw Youth Assembly (DIYA) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of declaring “a war” on the friends of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, particularly his “Ijaw kinsmen”.

In a statement issued by Oguma on Wednesday, the group alleged that impunity and disregard for the rule of law have been thriving under the current administration.

Condemning the arrest of Patrick Akpobolokemi, former director-general of  the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Oguma called on Nigerians to “stand for their rights”.

“President Buhari seems to have declared war on all friends and associates of former President Jonathan, particularly his Ijaw kinsmen, outside the rule of law,” the statement read.

“We have never been conquered and we won’t to surrender to nobody, at least not our generation.

“President Muhamadu Buhari seems to have handed over the proper running of Nigeria to his kinsman, Musa Lawal Daura, director-general of the DSS. What Daura has succeeded in doing is to infuse a culture of lawlessness on all law enforcement agencies.

“Monday’s manhandling and dehumanisation of Mr Patrick Akpobolokemi did not come as a surprise to us. The whole world saw how a law abiding citizen was ambushed in the temple of justice, beaten and driven off like a terrorist.

“The facts of the matter are a direct slap on justice. The EFCC had filed 52 count charges in two separate cases against Mr Akpobolokemi before two judges of the federal high court Lagos. Both judges granted bail with difficult conditions.
“Mr Akpolobokemi struggled to meet them. The EFCC’s grouse seems to be with the bails. But because it’s standing on very flimsy grounds, it’s resorting to such brutal self help measures. We learnt this morning how one Mr Oyedipo Rotimi, a lawyer and EFCC operative repeatedly slapped Mr Akpobolokemi, reminding him that he is Rotimi ‘the law’. I know the crooked maritime interests that are goading Rotimi.

“At the appropriate time, we shall expose them. But suffice it to say that these were some of the thieves that the
last management of NIMASA under Akpobolokemi put out of business.

“I implore President Buhari to run the affairs of this country with the fear of God. The final vote tally was hardly in when then President Goodluck Jonathan made the historic concessional phone call. To then proceed to want to run a country as a conquered territory beats me.

“But it must be safely moored to the rule of law and must be blind to ethnic groupings and party affiliations as currently being pursued by the current government under President Buhari. No Nigerian deserves the tyranny of government.

“Any government that cannot engage with the people of the Niger Delta but picks on the flotsams of our society, as the APC government did in the Bayelsa gubernatorial contest or as they are shamelessly recruiting in Delta state needs a proper audit of his moral compass.”