Former leaders of the Niger Delta militants have warned Nigerians that they will go back to the creeks if the 2015 presidential election is manipulated to edge out President Goodluck Jonathan.
Issuing the warning while speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Sunday, the ex-militant winners expressed sadness over an alleged plot to scheme Jonathan out of the 2015 presidential race.
Speaking under the auspices of the Niger Delta Ex-agitators Forum and the Association for Non-violence in Niger Delta, the former militants said they would see the outcome of the election as an act of God if Jonathan genuinely loses out in 2015, but would not take it lightly if any form of scheming is noticed.
NDEF President, Mr. Amaibi Ombi, cautioned that it was better to allow for a free and fair election than to manipulate the process in order to scheme out Jonathan.
Ombi also reacted to the recent comments credited to the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, and Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, insisting that such statements could not be a threat to Nigeria as a country.
Dokubo-Asari had threatened violence if Jonathan was not allowed to run a two-term tenure as President and subsequently warned that Nigeria would be history if he was arrested for threatening violence.
Ombi dismissed Dokubo-Asari’s stataement as no threat, but a statement to canvass the need for the President’s critics to allow him (Jonathan) run for two tenures in office.
“We will go back to the creeks if the 2015 presidential election is manipulated to scheme out President Goodluck Jonathan. But if the election is not manipulated, and Jonathan loses out, we would see it as the handiwork of God,” Ombi stressed.
The former militant leader claimed that some politicians, especially those from the North, were using Boko Haram to intimidate Jonathan out of the 2015 presidential election.
“They have been sending Boko Haram to harass and intimidate President Jonathan so that he will withdraw from the 2015 presidential race. Asari’s comment was not a threat; he (Dokubo-Asari) just wanted Nigerians to know that there is a need for Jonathan to go for two tenures,” the ex-fighter emphasised.
You have spoken my mind