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Prominent Rights Activist Dismisses Delta Ex-Militants ‘War’ Threat Should President Jonathan Lose

January 26, 2015

A widely-respected social and political rights activist based in the Southwest, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, has dismissed as "empty", the threats reportedly made by some ex-militants to strike if incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015.

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If Jonathan loses, nothing will happen, he asserted.

Speaking to SaharaReporters on the threats, Aremu advised the public simply to ignore them, saying they are negligible because they are coming from sources who are merely "looking for what to eat" and are “parroting for patronage”.

"Nigerians should ignore them,” the long-time activist said.  “They do not matter."

Aremu, on the issue of the activists saying they will stir wars after the election if President Jonathan, a candidate of their own economic interest is not voted it, he stressed that threat makers do not possess any weight or capacity to carry out their threats.

"Do they even know what is called war?” he asked.  "They are just a bunch of hungry pawn-parasites fronting for the big looters.”

Aremu stressed that Asari-Dokubo and others are not from the troubled Niger-Delta region, nor do they know or represent its people who are suffering from poverty and government neglect.

"They don’t own the souls of the Ijaw poor majority not to talk of the masses of Niger Delta who suffer extreme deprivation," he said.

"Have you ever seen them fight for the education, healthcare and social welfare needs of the Niger Deltans? Each time they mouth resource allocation, it is to front for the big looters of Niger Delta and they collect their selfish crumbs, while the mass of their people live in want.”

Citing period from 2002/2003, Aremu said the threat-making militants had been working for politicians and traditional rulers to rig elections in Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa States.

He said they later graduated into the oil bunkering and thefts, and lately with the Jonathan presidency, were elevated into ranks of rent-collectors, looters and big contractors on those lines.

"Odili, Alams and Ibori were their inaugural mentors and protectors.  Amaechi, Uduaghan and Slyva inherited them and so on," he said.

He said that anytime any of them is seen quarreling with those governors or ministers, it has to do with the sharing formula of the loot.

"They don't know what is war,” he reiterated.  “If they know they will think twice. They think war is about weaponry they don’t even produce.”

The activist underlined the threat makers' goals are merely to control oil and loot, and impose suffering on the poor people of the area.