A former militant in the Niger Delta, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo appeared to have hijacked the Biafra Republic struggle from its putative leader Nnamdi Kanu.
In a surprise announcement on Sunday, that raised quite many eyebrows, Asari declared himself leader of the new Biafra de facto Customary Government.
Like Kanu, he cited “injustice and marginalisation” on the Igbo people found in various zones of the country as the reason for his aspiring for a “better life for his people”.
The Biafra declaration was issued in a statement by Uche Mefor, the Head of Information and Communication of his customary government.
Mefor announced George Onyibe as the Secretary of the group while Emeka Esiri would be in charge of the Legal Matters.
Asari-Dokubo, who is an Ijaw, said that the de facto government would address the current insecurity challenges faced by the Igbo as well as focusing on science and technology to make life easier for the people.
He listed the proposed government’s paramount agenda as comprising security by “securing the lives and properties of our people; we are going to invest everything we have in science and technology to increase the scientific and technological discoveries, fabrications and making life easier for our people through science and technology.”
“We are going to pursue rigorously the education of our people; we are going to make sure that we feed ourselves.
“You are all aware of the recent plot where they decided to stop food from the North. They failed woefully; they will continue to fail.
“The government of Biafra States will look to make sure that we only eat what we can produce.
“Nobody can stop us. Nobody can blockade us as they did in the first war.
“We’re not going to fight any war with anybody; we’re walking to freedom. We will not shoot any gun with them, they will prepare their weapon but they will have nobody to kill with their weapon.”
“We as people have resolved that as Biafra, it’s time for us to take our destiny in our hands and bring freedom to ourselves and our children and the generation of Biafrans yet unborn.
“I want to call on our brother, George Onyibe to come on board to join as the secretary of the de facto customary government of the State of Biafra. He will take care of the administrative, day to day administration of the Biafra State. I also call on our brother Emeka Esiri to take care of the legal needs of this nascent government.
“My brothers and sisters, the four of us will kick start the process, others will come on board. We want volunteers who are committed; we want volunteers because there is nothing anymore. We are the people who have volunteered to salvage ourselves and the rest of us.
“I also call on Biafrans in the various provinces of the Biafra nations in Aba, Abakiliki, Anang, Awka, Calabar, Degema, Eket, Nsuka, Ogoja, Oji River, Okigwe, Onitsha, Opobo, Orlu, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Umuahia, Uyo and Yenegoa.
“We are going to proceed to set up provincial structures of government starting with provincial assemblies and provincial governance and administrators. Let nobody be mistaking that a Biafra will be worse than Nigeria. There is nothing that will be worse than what we are facing today in Nigeria.”
There has been no reaction yet from the Nigerian government or Nnamdi Kanu led Indigenous People of Biafra.
In June last year, Dokubo and Kanu were embroiled in a war of words, over accusations that Dokubo collected N20million from IPOB.
Dokubo fired back by accusing Kanu of collecting hundreds of millions from South East governors. He challenged Kanu to swear on the Torah, to debunk his claim.
