Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Muhajid Dokubo-Asari, has given an insight into his encounter with the State Security Service (SSS). The former militant leader honoured the SSS invitation and voluntarily reported at its headquarters in Abuja yesterday, was interrogated for six hours before he was released at 4pm.

Dokubo, who was in the company of his lawyer, walked into the warm embrace of his bosom friend, Chief Aroloyeteim Brown, a former chairman of Asari Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, some Niger Delta chiefs and an NDPVF delegation.

On what transpired between him and the SSS, he said: “It was a routine question and answer on my interviews. I gave them my opinion and reason. I told them that it is wrong for some people to be treated as if they are above the law, as if they have the right to threaten others, make incisive comments and continue to intimidate people and get away with it.

“I was not given any paper to sign. I only wrote my statement.

“They said they don’t want the polity to be heated up and that it is an appeal to all other people. They treated me well. I am a regular visitor to SSS. It was the usual treatment.”

Apparently referring to northerners opposed to President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election, especially the Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who was also interrogated last week by the SSS over inciting statements, Dokubo said:

“My arrest has given us the opportunity to tell them (others) that they should stop making incisive comments and stop threatening others because if they do that now, they must be arrested. We will demand for their arrest.

“We are not afraid of arrest. We are used to suffering; they are not. They have been enjoying government money and patronage; we have not. We are used to being in the creek, swamp and forest; they’re not. We are used to mosquito bites; they’re not.”

•Photo shows Dokubo.

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