Following a recent invitation extended to Prof. Patrick Muoboghere, and nine others by the Delta State Police Command on charges of terrorism, gun running and drug abuse petition levied against him by three persons from Uwheru Kingdom, Godwin-Maria Utuedoye, of Southernvoicenews.com Online interviewed Prof. Muoboghere on the issue and other issues related to terrorism in Nigeria. He spoke extensively on the allegations levied against him and nine others, and admitted that; ‘there are terrorists in Uwheru’, but alleged that governments at all level and the security agencies knew who the terrorists are and where they are. He also raised some salient points on oil bunkering and activities of security agents especially the 17 army personnel who were brutally murdered and the subsequent invasion of Okuama community. Excerpts;
Prof., you were invited by the police recently following a petition on charges of terrorism, gun running and drug abuse, and we also read you saying you will expose those behind terrorism in Delta state. Can you tell us how you went with the police and those you think are behind terrorism?
Yes, first of all I responded to the invitation extended to me by the Delta State Police Command for the annoying petition written against me and about nine others from Uwheru Kingdom that we were involved in terms of terrorism, gun running and drug pushing. A very laughable allegations against me and nine other persons from Uwheru.
Prof. can you tell us those behind the petition?
Yes, the police were good enough to have given us their names and the petition to see. It was very laughable but my first reaction was that the person who wrote that petition were certainly insane, and the people behind them were more insane than the people who wrote the petition. And they wrote the petition believing that the Nigeria Police of today is still the Nigeria Police of those days, that once a petition is written, they will just lock you up. But even if people are to be locked up, it is not my kind of person that will just be invited to the police station and locked up. You must listen to me and the other side of the story. And I confess to you that the officers we met were professionals. So, they showed us the petition and we read it, I was given a paper to write my statement and I was happy, then I took up the issue of terrorism, but, I must state here that indeed, there is terrorism in Uwheru kingdom and there are terrorists in Uwheru my village. The terrorists are not from my village, but foreign Fulani killer herdsmen who have taken over Delta state and not just Uwheru. These terrorists and where they are, are known to the National Security Adviser. They are known to the Directorate of Military Intelligence. They are known to the Nigeria Intelligence Agency. They are known to the Directorate of State Security Agency. They are also known to headquarters of the Nigeria Police, as well as the headquarters of the Nigeria Army and their GPS position is known to them. The particular point they are in everywhere in Uwheru and other parts of Delta state, are known to them. They are known to the governor of Delta state. Where they are, who they are, are known to the local government chairman of Ughelli North. Though when I say governor of Delta state, I don’t necessarily mean Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori my friend, but all governors who have govern Delta state. They have always known where they are, but these governors are LAME DUCK because the title of Chief Security Officer given to them in the constitution is not real. Like some of my colleagues will say, they are not even Security Officers not to say Chief Security Officers. If you say, they are Chief Security Officers, and they do not even have control over the Commissioner of Police in their state, have no control over the Brigade Command, no control over the DSS because they are all control from Abuja. Example of that is the former Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom. He accented to a bill passed by the State House of Assembly which annulled open grazing as the Chief Security Officer of the state, but the Commissioner of Police had the temerity to talk to the press that he will not enforce the law, yet he still remain a police man. He won’t enforce a law duly passed by a state assembly and accented to by the Chief Security Officer of the State, and he is still being addressed as Chief Security Officer. Another example here in Delta state is that my governor is said to be the Chief Security Officer of Delta state, but Okuama was leveled, and my governor could not access his own territory. First, he wasn’t told that soldiers were going to Okuama, but this was his territory, and it was leveled and he could not go there to see for himself for months until there was one horrible show they put up that soldiers have gone, you can now come and see your territory. So it is not for only Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, but for all governors of the 36 states of the federation. None is a Chief Security Officer. So the earlier that title is removed, the better so that the citizens will know that their governors is not the Chief Security Officer, therefore, if anything happened, they won’t hold the state governor responsible. The Police in Delta state know where the terrorists are in Uwheru because policemen were killed there by the terrorists. The first set were slaughtered, and a rescue mission came and were also slaughtered and none of them could go into the forest, but it took the same brave Uwheru boys to lead the police into the forest to retrieve the dead bodies of the slain policemen. The Nigerian government was not provoked enough to invade the forest. The Nigeria government was not provoked enough to send soldiers to the forest in Uwheru to flush out the foreign killer herdsmen, but for bunkering and boundary adjustment issues between Okuama and Okoloba communities, government sent a whole army lieutenant and other sixteen officers and men. That tells you, that in Nigeria, our priorities are very very wrongly placed. So, like I said; there are terrorists in Uwheru, and my local government chairman knows them. My governor knows them, the Commissioner of police, the Director of State Security Service knows them. That is Delta alone, and then, at the National level, the Commander in Chief know where they are because he gets briefing from security agencies daily. Also, the Director of Military Intelligence knows were they are. So the question is what are we doing? How can you say some Uwheru boys who are even victims of terrorism are terrorist. Those boys that were invited to Asaba cannot even access their farms anymore because terrorist have taken over their farmlands. Their wives, sisters and mothers cannot access their farms anymore because terrorists have taken over their farms and land. So they just sit at home waiting for us earning some kinds of salaries to send something to them to feed with, but these were people who use to send us garri, yam, pepper, sweet potato, bean and groundnuts. They are now the ones we are now buying and sending food materials to. Its an insult.
But Prof. what you are saying now, your king has denounced having issues with any of those invited by the police, and he also never make mentioned of any form of siege by terrorists in the kingdom. How do you react to that?
Yes, because everyone is scared to speak on security issues. As you know, the king is a government official and he can be deposed since he is on government payroll. So everybody is cautious and so, he wouldn’t want to talk, but as for the petition written against me and nine others, it originated from my village Uwheru.
(Interrupted) But the king denounced knowledge of the petition
Yes, because he was accused due to the events that occurred before now that are related to the last election of the community President General where the king had interest in a particular candidate and unfortunately, his candidate lost , and he has not been happy with himself and those who work for the other candidate.
Are you one of those that work against the king?
No, I didn’t work against the King, but I work for a candidate and that candidate who has gotten the second and last tenure now as the President General, was one of those invited to Asaba on charges of terrorism which is very laughable like I said earlier. One of the petitioners when been grilled by the police and asked to speak about their terrorism, said, we have to bring the professor in because during the last President General election, he supported the President General. So with that statement, you can see the king didn’t want a particular candidate to emerge, and he actually told the person not to contest, but we have never seen such a thing before now. Though we stood against that and told the king to feed his own candidate, unfortunately we never expected that the traditionally ruler will have a candidate, but he felt his candidate will emerge winner, unfortunately he didn’t. We had expected the king to work with whosoever emerges as the President General just as everybody is working with him haven emerged as the traditional ruler. Like you all know that the position of the traditional ruler was very contentious. Somebody was already crowned before him, and it took those of us in the diaspora to say no, let peace reign, and let him be the traditional ruler. You know everything good is contested. So the position of the President General is good and its contested just like that of the governor.
Still on terrorism, how do the Uwheru community feel having been attacked severally by suspected Fulani herdsmen?
We feel pain till today. That each time policemen attempt to come and rescue the kingdom from the stranglehold of the killer herdsmen, they are killed. Policemen are killed and the Inspector General of Police does not feel it. The Chief of Defence Staff does not feel it that policemen are slaughtered recklessly by Chadeans, Nigeriens and people from Cameroon. Your territory is invaded, rather than the soldier going to the part of the Nigeria territory that is invaded, they are going to Okuama and Okoloba that are not invaded but whose problems are problems meant squarely for the police or the local government chairmen. It is so painful that we have come to this stage. It is not just Uwheru, but Ogor, Edjekota-Ogor, are all victim. Agbarho, Orogun, Kokori, Ughelli, Olomu are all victims. So for you to be looking for terrorists at this time that the information is available to the President of who the terrorists are is unfortunate. Two key Nigerians have exposed each other of sponsoring terrorism. The former governor of Zamfara state and the present governor of Zamfara state. The former is accusing the present one of sponsoring terrorism and the present one is saying to the former, you are the sponsor of terrorists. This means two of them have exposed each other, but nothing is happening. One is a serving minister while one is a sitting governor. The government of the day left those people but going after Uwheru boys that cannot even feed themselves. Nigeria does not have the courage as we speak to handle this matter, if not the military can overrun the forest within a day. The military can overrun all the forest in Delta state that are occupied by herdsmen, but they will not because it is not their policy.
Prof. Could it be there is a compromise in the military and other security agents?
It is like the military are the same. I believe they are the same because in Uwheru, once the terrorists kill, and you know it is normal because it is expected that people will react, that is when the military will arrive to ensure nobody reacts. Now, has any terrorist in Ughelli North local government area been arrested? None has been arrested and will not be arrested unless the policy changed. Unless the people cried out consistently and persistently that enough is enough, nothing will happen. The terrorists are in Okpanam, Ibusa and in a Ika land, and back here, Jesse is finished because they have taken over. Why, and Delta state had a law banning open grazing.
But during the one year anniversary of the Delta state 8th Assembly, when journalists asked about the open grazing law, the speaker of the house, Rt. Hon. Guwor Emomotimi Denis told journalists that the implementation of the law lies on the executive. Prof., you have been in the executive council before, can you tell us what is delaying the implementation of the law?
That was were we started this interview. I told you that the Governor of Delta state or any Governor of the 36 states is not even a Security Officer, not to talk of Chief Security Officer. They have no powers. They cannot arm us for example, those who are armed for him to use are not responsible to him. They don’t take directives from him but from someone in Abuja. And we are beginning to suspect something, how come the majority of soldiers in Delta state are Hausa’s? Then look at those soldiers killed at Okuama, about fourteen of the officers were Hausa’s. This Hausa’s are the ones that understand the language of the herdsmen. Is it possible they are brought here to protect the herdsmen? We want to know. How is it that out of Seventeen, fourteen are from one area and only three from other part of the country?
Maybe it is because of the quota system and possibly during recruitment, majority of the slots go to the North because they are majority?
Why should it be so?
Prof. will you say citing of most military or security institutions and training centres in the North is a mistake?
No, even if all of them are in the North, and there is a quota system, the quota system should be maintained. If all the security apparatus remain in the North and there is a National policy of admission by quota, that quota should be followed, but I doubt if there is.
Who do you think are saddled with the responsibility of enforcing the quota system?
The Commander In Chief. But it seems any President from the South is always at the mercy of the Northerners, even the former President Goodluck Jonathan, at time cried out that his government has been infiltrated by Boko Haram, and it is possible too that the military has been infiltrated. Sometimes, some of the army officers I see, I doubt if they truly pass through the NDA. The reason is that there is no way a cadet who went through the NDA will not know that the environment must be protected. It does not matter whether the person read geography or not, but because it is a topical issue, he or she should know. An army officer is always very current, so how can a train officer who went through the Nigeria Defense Academy sees a Tanker laden with crude oil, then take it to the Highways and set it ablaze polluting the environment? That crude oil he is wasting belong to Nigeria, and when an officer did something like this he is celebrated for bravado, why? You cannot be here polluting the environment when Boko Haram, Banditry or whatever has taken over the entire Northern region. No, it is wrong.
Back to the issue of gun running, terrorism and drug pushing allegations levied against you and nine others, Prof. are you a gun runner, terrorist or drug pusher? Why was the invitation extended to you by the police?
(Smiles) No, the invitation must be extended to me because once a petition is written, it is then the responsibility of the police to investigate, and if they have not investigated, this same people could have written to the Inspector General of Police IGP, that they have identify terrorists, gun runners and drug pushers but the Delta state police command is pushing it under the carpet, and could have called on the IGP to do something. So it was proper that they invited those who were accused. And, I am also happy that they included my name because those poor boys I saw at the police station could not have known what to do because they were confused. In fact, I asked the man who wrote the petition to define terrorism, but he couldn’t even speak English, yet he signed the petition and he cannot even spell terrorism. They are people who allowed themselves to be used, and that was why I said they are insane and used by persons who are more insane.
Prof. Can you tell us why you were given this opportunity to explain or say your own part of the story and in some other cases the people were not given such privilege before their communities were levelled?
You see, the leveling of such communities, again I will come back to Okuama because Gen. Chris Musa, the Chief of Defence Staff made a slip in the favour of the community by saying at first, that the whole Okuama issue is about bunkering, but he never said that again. He didn’t repeat it again. He knew it was about bunkering that was why they have to go to Amagbein’s village at Igbomoturu in Bayelsa to destroy the whole place. They went there probably because there is a civilian leading the military which is very unfortunate. Pardon me for this language, ‘its like see finish’ because someone boasted that Okuama will never exist again and that person is known. Come to think of it, how can a Lieutenant Colonel, a Major and other ranks and file of the military go and settle a mere boundary dispute and you expect Nigerians to believe that? To me, that was not the mission and up till today, the military have not told us their mission. They said they were on a peace mission but the state Governor was not informed. The local government chairman, the Divisional Police Officer in the area and other authorities in the area are not aware. Again they claim they were not armed, but in their second invasion of the community, they said they were looking for arms. So if they went there unarmed, which of the arms are they now looking for?
Now what do you suggest should be done?
I recommend that the officer who sent the slain soldiers to their untimely death should be court Marshall (Tried) and disciplined. I have not wavered on that. Whoever sent the murdered officers to Okuama for their early death should be tried. Bunkering business is a dangerous business and those involved know themselves. That is why you see there are Security contractors, Oil bunkering contractors in charge of security. They are involved but they want to block others who are also involved. That is what causes most of these problems in the creeks. Majority of the security contractors you see or hear about have their own refining sites, but want to destroy another persons refining sites and those ones too, would want to resist by saying go to your state to destroy and don’t come to our state. We know all these because we are Nigerians. Although, for this smaller modular refineries that they set up, for me as Patrick Mouboghere, rather than allowing them steal the crude oil, government should sell the crude to them. The only thing they will not be able to refine is petrol, because it has to be blended with other technologies. So let them do their diesel for us and you get your bitumen for road also, and a lot of things comes out of it if it is open. Just make it open, little by little they will refine the process because according to the saying, Rome was not built in a day. Why I am saying there are criminal elements engage to oversee the crime, I believe that this small small refineries should be made official. Those ones operating in the creeks can supply the diesel needs of Delta state if you give them the crude oil to buy.
(Interrupted) But Prof. What if they refused to buy the crude from the government because they are already enjoying it free from the vandalized pipeline
No. They won’t refuse, but rather because government is not making it available, that is why they are stealing it. They would want to make profit, but since it is not given to them, they steal it. You can imagine as tough, as rich, and big as Dangote, he went through several ordeals before he could get crude oil and Nigerians have to blackmail government and if not for the blackmail, Dangote wouldn’t have been given crude oil. Dangote knew the cost of production and his profit, and i tell you the pump price of petrol would have been far down than this, but NNPCL that could not refine from four refineries, suddenly now became trader.
Prof. let’s go back to the police invitation on charges of terrorism, gun running and drug pushing. Can you tell us how the case is going and were you are now?
Okay, they will come back because investigation continue and it is at the end of the investigation that I will now take my own action or respond to the petitioners. You know when investigation is on, they will have to establish terrorism or not established, but I must tell you I was very cooperative with the police by identifying the terrorists for them and by telling them where they are in Uwheru since they are the one looking for them. But I must say I blame not the Nigeria police for inviting me. They were suppose to invite me and I must thanked them for giving me the opportunity to say, look there are terrorists in Uwheru and not only in Uwheru, but the whole of Delta State. So, I will always say it is a National Policy not to deal with terrorists. There is this Jega panel on livestock and they made stupid, wicked and arrogant recommendation that open grazing should go along with ranching. In other words, the Fulani’s is arrogantly telling us that open grazing must continue. And you say we are in the same country, we are not. We are just the peaceful ones, but I think the Delta state government should do what a governor did in one of the states in the North by telling the citizens to defend themselves. Once that is done, it will be the end. And the governor would have committed no crime because those we are defending ourselves against are not Nigerians. They are foreigners who have invaded our land. So patriotic Nigerians are ready to defend the Nigerian land against invaders. Then finally on the petition against me and nine others, the police are still investigating, and if I am not found culpable, then you know what it means to give false information to the police and for misleading the police.
Thanks you very much Professor Patrick Muoboghere for giving us your time.
You are always welcome.