The Defence Headquarters has come under fire over its statement on Thursday (October 10, 2024) that it chose not to go after former Niger Delta warlord, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, to avoid being accused of acting “undemocratically”. The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) on Friday dismissed the position of the military hierarchy as “offensive double standards which diminishes the status of the armed forces of Nigeria.”“It is such a pathetic sight to behold the Defence Headquarters talking back on Asari-Dokubo instead of enforcing the law by investigating, arresting and prosecuting him even if not for his most recent threat, but for the previous outings in which he was seen on videos brandishing military grade assault rifles. Is the Defence Headquarters feigning ignorance of all these videos of Asari-Dokubo?” HURIWA said in a statement signed by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.

It was reacting to the remarks the Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, made in Abuja while responding to a recent report about Asari-Dokubo’s alleged threat to shoot down a military helicopter that had reportedly hovered around his residence.

Addressing journalists, the DHQ spokesman described Asari-Dokubo’s threat as laughable, challenging him to confront soldiers on the battlefield if he was bold enough.

Buba said: “Now, the comment by an individual that he can shoot down military helicopters is laughable. And I am about to laugh at that. We are in a democracy, and we are professionals. Of course, we cannot just, based on somebody’s comments, begin to take certain actions. They would accuse the military of being undemocratic.

“The military is not the only security force or department in the country. There are other security agencies that have a constitutional role to play in handling such issues.

“I tell you that he doesn’t have that capability, but I will allow the security forces responsible for such matters to take it up. As for us, come to the battlefield, and we’ll take you out. He should come to the battlefield and see whether we can react or not.”

But HURIWA would have none of that. It said that the statement from the defence headquarters “has made a joke of the strategic place of the country’s military especially when it has officially become manifest that certain persons from some political persuasions are treated as sacred cows whereas others, especially those from the Igbo speaking South East of Nigeria, are treated as outlaws and punished decisively with sledgehammer. This policy of discrimination is unconstitutional and illegal.”

HURIWA condemned “the failure of the Defence Headquarters to arrest Asari-Dokubo who had previously disclosed that he runs a private Army which he claimed to have deployed in some parts of Nigeria including the South East of Nigeria just as the same former Niger Delta militant warlord openly displayed several military grade weapons in a video that went viral in which broadcast he threatened to kill Igbos but many months after we called for his arrest, nothing of such happened.”

HURIWA recalled that during the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the Army invaded the private home of the long detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who was then at home after he was granted bail by Justice Binta Murtala Nyako of the Federal High Court. “Even when Mazi Nnamdi Kanu posed no significant national security risk and was actually in his parents’ home, the military struck attempting to either kill or re-arrest him,” HURIWA recalled.

The rights group then wondered “why the Defence Headquarters is now speaking from both sides of its mouth in the current face off with Asari-Dokubo to the shameful extent that the statement made by the military asking Asari-Dokubo to meet the Army in the battlefield to see that he would be neutralised, exposed the current administration as tolerating impunity and lawlessness and this public comedy is puerile, laughable but despicable.”

According to HURIWA, “It is shocking that the Defence Headquarters is now hiding under democracy to permit lawlessness only because Asari-Dokubo is a friend of the current president whom he, Asari-Dokubo, visited in Aso Rock soon after the current president was inaugurated, and addressed a press conference whereby he made scandalous revelations including the claim that his private army worked as a consultant for the federal government on the permission of the immediate past president.

“Few days back, the same Asari-Dokubo openly threatened to shoot down military jet allegedly hovering around his massive mansion. But instead of the Defence Headquarters to take him in for interrogation and possible prosecution, the Defence Headquarters started speaking from both sides of their mouths in a show of shame and in a clear demonstration of double standards.”