Northern coalition cautions Asari-Dokubo, others on violence threats

THE Northern Coalition Group (NCG) Sunday cautioned the leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo and other leaders of the former Niger Delta militant groups to desist from making threats of violence ahead of the 2015 general elections. 

  The group warned that it would not hesitate to take legal actions against any group or person that instigates violence during and after the 2015 general elections just as they have done by suing the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over his alleged role in the 2011 post-election violence in some parts of northern Nigeria.

  The coalition group, which led a protest in support of the filling of a suit against Buhari at the ICC yesterday in Abuja, said that it was only demanding justice from the court as a lesson to all those who are planning to instigate similar situations in the country either during or after the elections.

  Speaking during the protest, which had hundreds of protesters with banners with inscriptions like “Justice is the only weapon in democracy,” “Buhari must face ICC for his crimes against humanity”, leader of the protesters, Ibrahim Baba, said the protest was to re-echo the coalition’s case instituted against the presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in connection with his role in the 2011 post-election violence, stressing that with what is happening today in the country, there is need to make sure that people are brought to book when they commit crimes against humanity.

  Baba, who is also the Director of Research and Documentation of the group, urged the Niger Delta militants to avoid making inciting and intimidating statements that could generate tension and lead to violence, warning that the northern coalition group stands for justice and would not hesitate to face them if they cause violence in the 2015 general elections.

   “This coalition of organisations has sued some of them who are culpable in the 2011 post-election violence which Gen. Buhari featured prominently by his utterances in Minna, Kaduna and Borno states where he spoke at length that people should take the bull by the horn in Hausa language and tried to make it look as if people should rise up against the system.

   “So, as we are approaching this 2015 elections, there is need for us in the civil societies to make sure that some of those people, most especially the Bauchi 12 that lost their lives, there must be a record, there is no more impunity that whoever does what he does will go with it.

  “We have gone to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to institute this case since 2011 and the case is being pursued vigorously to make sure that everybody who is found culpable in perpetuating post-election violence is brought to book”, he said.

  “We condemn any act of linguistic intimidation, we condemn it in all its entirety, there is nobody that is above the law and nobody should try to sectionalise the country for whatever reasons. We condemn Asari-Docubo and his vituperation; we condemn any person that is up to promoting ethnicity, religion and tribalism.  Asari-Dokubo is not an exception, and for us, if he is found culpable in anything, we will also take him headlong”, the group warned.