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How I negotiated Ateke Tom,
others’ surrender –Militants’ lawyer
From VAL OKARA, Owerri
Friday, November 27, 2009
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•Photo:
Sun News Publishing |
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Hon. Uche Onyeaguocha, a lawyer, human rights activist
and former member of the House of Representatives has voiced
a strong opposition to the deregulation of the downstream sector
of the oil sector.
Onyeaguocha represented Owerri Federal Constituency
in the lower House between 2003 to 2007 on the platform
of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and later
defected to the Action Congress (AC) where he
ran for 2007 governorship election in Imo State.
He said he would join any protest march against deregulation, contending
that the policy was to benefit only a section of the nation.
The AC chieftain also called on the Nigerian people to
take to the streets should President Umaru Musa Yar’adua
re-appoint Prof. Maurice Iwu as the INEC chairman
to conduct the nation’s future elections. He warned
that , “if Prof. Iwu is returned as INEC chairman nobody
should participate in that election and people must
go out on the streets to challenge it. According to
him, it will be stupid and reckless for anybody to
allow himself to participate in any other
election conducted by Iwu if he is returned as
INEC chairman.
Onyeaguocha spoke on the mega party and possibility of PDP disintegrating
in 2011 considering the crises currently ravaging the party even
as joiners (defectors) have taken over the leadership of the party.
Romance between Buhari and Atiku
I believe if properly managed it will be in the interest
of this country for all other members of opposition to come
together under one umbrella. The All Nigeria Peoples Party
(ANPP) under Chief Edwin Umezuoke is another
extension of PDP. We are actually should
be thinking of the day he will invite Nigerians
to formally announce their defection to PDP so that we
can sing the demise of the ANPP. I believe that Buhari and
Atiku the way they are going if they continue to work hard
inviting other people I think it will create a
stabilizing force. I believe that the biggest electoral
reform we can really have will be when we have
two strong parties like we had in the era of SDP
and NRC. If we are successfully bringing about a mega party
then we are going to have a situation of two political parties of equal
strength, the same capacity to rig, equal capacity for thuggery as
well as equal capacity for everything. Everybody will
now know that the best thing is to allow the votes to
be counted and that is why those of us who are clamouring for
electoral reforms are believing that the meeting is good for
all of us.
One party state
I am certain that PDP will be incapable
of turning Nigeria into one party
state no matter how hard they try. No matter how
hard they work Nigeria cannot be turned into one
party state because PDP doesn’t exist
as a party. I have tried to illustrate this to as many people as
possible because it is only in PDP that
you have a migrant from APP such as Prince
Vincent Ogbulafor who contested as a governor
in APP in 1999 becoming a National Secretary
of another party in less than two-three year after.
A National Secretary is the soul and spirit
of a party so anybody who is a migrant from a new party defecting shouldn’t be
expected to be the national secretary of a party. To
show how useless PDP is, Ogbulafor became their national secretary
and now became their national chairman. Most of the people
at the helms of affairs in PDP were actually defectors. The former
chairman of the party, Dr. Ahmadu Ali deflected from APP. If
you may recall Odili, Iwuanyawu, Arthur Nzeribe, Olusola Saraki
and his group came from APP.
The truth is that APP had re-branded itself as PDP. Original PDP
members are now on ravage finding miserable situation for the themselves.
That is why they struggled in most states in the country and party
has a minimum of three factions. For instance in Plateau
State, you have Dariye faction, Ibrahim Matu group and Jonah Jack
faction. In truth they are dissolving their party,
they are in their weakness state and PDP is now in the state
of total weakness.
I always try to remind the people that the method
of rigging started from acquiring
excessive votes cards but now that method is no
longer working because everybody has unveiled
the secret of it. In an election, you cannot generate enough
people to use your excess voter’s cards to vote for you.
They abandoned that method and went to stuffing of ballot boxes.
They discovered that people had blocked them they
went to another stage which is forging election results.
They have gone to another stage by announcing the results of
the election and cooked up the results later. I am
sure that in short while we are going to find an antidote to
it.
There is nobody in PDP today who you will call upon to
contest an election against the smallest Nigerian and he will
not start by planning a rigging strategy despite all
their money, wealth, power and connection. When Bode George was
sentenced to jail the National secretary of PDP, Alhaji Baragi made an
interesting statement by saying that “ anytime PDP loses
a case everybody celebrates, anytime PDP wins any case
everybody gets angry.” If everybody celebrates when PDP
loses and everybody gets angry when PDP wins who else
is voting for PDP? He knew that people are tired and they
are finding a way out of it.
We are at the final stage and this final stage is always the most
difficult stage and I believe that our people
will also overcome it. The possibility of all serving in one party state
is not going to come anywhere now. But you see that even
the internal contradictions they have currently is going
to destroy them.
Deregulation
In 1987 when there was a hike in fuel protest , I was
then a student in the university. We under the
leadership of NANS at that time led a major protest that challenged
an increment of petroleum price at N11.00. If I
can fight to challenge it at that time when they
made such a minor increment, you will find out that we
have a major responsibility to fight against it now.
The truth is that those who are running the oil sector
in Nigeria have no new ideas because at the last increment
they were talking about free market. If they are talking about
subsidy again what are there to be subsidizing? Why is it that we
were unable to build any new refinery up to date. If we
don’t have money to build a new refinery? why can’t even
we include it as a condition for any of the seven major
oil companies that they must all build and run
a refinery. But, because it (system) is benefiting
few cabal they would not like such idea to work.
As far as I am concerned all these arguments on deregulation
are just like any of the failed arguments
in the past. It is because deregulation of the downstream sector
is of their own interest and they are the primary beneficiaries
of this change in price that they are canvassing
for the removal of oil subsidy. I am opposed to
it . I will be part of any protest for some march against
it. I will join with any team to be involved
any process that will ensure that it doesn’t
happen so that we can begin to reclaim our rights
to best of our ability.
Electoral reform?
I know, that one of the easiest ways of government to control
and rig election in this country has been the
starving of INEC of funds.
They delivered money to them at the very
last minute. That is why we are saying that INEC funds
must be drawn from a separate line. We believe the Uwai’s
report must be implemented to have a credible election in
this country. The chairman of the Electoral Commission
in India has served for about 15 years. People keep
insisting for him to continue. He organizes
free and fair electoral process, not the shame
conducted by Professor Maurice Iwu who is still asking
for second term. We are having some
information that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
is contemplating returning him for second term.
But, I want to say that and we want to warn that if Iwu is
returned as INEC chairman for another term nobody
should participate in that election and people must go out
in the streets and challenged. It will be stupid and reckless
for anybody to allow himself to participate in any other election
conducted by Iwu. It is time we start sanitizing the
process, that is why we are joining hands with
CODER to call for electoral reform.
Do you think that politicians have done enough
to effect changes in the nation’s electoral
process?
I am even ashamed that we have not gone far enough. We
have not fought enough. In fact, the journalists have
waged a better struggle than the politicians who are
the direct beneficiaries. Today, the NLC is doing more
in leading the protest for electoral reform than
the politicians that will benefit from
it. Politicians are part of the biggest nuisance and
the burden that we are facing in this country.
All of us must wake up and begin to do something
for our people and for our future.
If post amnesty fails as one of the lawyers of the ex-militants
what will be the implication? Will your reputation be
at stake?
I am like a lawyer who somebody hires to do a case.
You have to do your case the way your client wants to
do it. But, if you client suddenly wants
you to negotiate, he will also give you his terms
and conditions for negotiation. If you put it on the table
and the other party accepts it and it doesn’t
work out, it is for him to sort it out. I believe
that if the amnesty fails it is not me or my reputation
that is at stake, it is definitely that of the federal government.
I believe that those who will lose more are those who
think that when the amnesty fails
they will benefit more.
How do you trace the militants to creeks?
I actually schooled in Rivers State University of Science
and Technology, that is where I studied law after doing my
first degree in University of Calabar. Most of the people
who formed Ijaw Youths Council are my friends.
I was a founding member of Ijaw Youths Council
and founding member among those who threw up the
resource control. It was from the foundation
of the Ijaw Youths Council that I became
their legal adviser. Most of them were my school
mates in different schools. Alhaji Asari Dokubo
was my school mate at the University of Calabar and we
were both members of the same organization, the Movement of Progressive
Nigeria (MPN). He also met me at the Rivers
State University of Science and Technology as
a classmate. In fact, his real name is Milford Goodhead, jnr.
It was only when he came back to RSUT that I started knowing him
as Alhaji Abubakar Asari Dokubo which was after
his conversion from Christianity to Islam. I was actually
the lawyer to Odi Youths. I was the lawyer of those boys who
resisted the army until I went to the House of Representatives .
I have had a long standing tradition of relating with them and I
thought by that somebody has to be close to them.
I never went out of my way to pick the case because
I was in the House of Representatives until I came back after
the failed governorship ambition.
On arrival in Port Harcourt they now pleaded with me
to appear for them before the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission where I represented Mr. Ateke
Tom. It was in that process of visitation I also decided
to visit his camp personally. I started
seeing that life in the camp is a different thing. They have
people from all over the country. It was a quite a difficult
place because for you to get where
they are you have to travel by boat to a point you have
to come out and you start walking in mud.
You will walk to such a distance before you get
where they really were. When they told me that
they needed me to be part of their surrender process and I
found out that they trusted me.
I took Chief Tony Annieh, the
Defence Minister, General Godwin Abbe to
the camp to meet with Mr. Ateke Tom and
Timi Alaribe for the negotiation. I remembered that at a stage
the big question was how he would come out of the creeks?
It is something that borders on trust. I have
never carried a gun before but I wish
I know how to shoot because I think
it would have been a worthy experience considering
the kind of process we are going through
in Nigeria. I will even advocate that everybody
should use this opportunity of the madness
going on in the country to avail himself
some military training on how to use firearms.
It is important now, because nobody should be
having monopoly of violence. This is because
what most of the people who had rigged elections
have used was part of monopoly of violence. I am also
advocating that people must be given the opportunity
to freely bear arms. Everybody must have
the opportunity of carrying arms. If everybody
carries arms you cannot rig election using arms
because there must be too many carrying
the arms. We must start insisting that people
must have the opportunity to bear arms.
It was quite interesting sharing such experience with the
militants in the creeks. I think it is an experience
Nigeria should not allow to occur again because
nobody knows what it will turn out to be after
this time around.
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