Wild claims and counterclaims have been part of the Delta’s political theatre since 2003 the days of the firebrand Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari who accused the army of using chemical weapons...
He joined up with Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari leader of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force in Rivers State who was supporting his western Ijaw brothers and sisters against their Itsekiri neighbours and their rival Ateke Tom’s Niger Delta Vigilante Services/Icelander Confraternity...
His supporters include ex-militant chieftains notably the firebrand AlhajiMujahid Dokubo Asari whose fight with his underworld rival Ateke Tom in 2004 brought the entire Niger Delta to the brink of all-out war...
MEND brings loosely together the Ijaw Youth Congress fighters of this period remnants of Mujahid Dokubo-Asari’s Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities and the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force with smaller criminal gangs and armed groups such as Ateke Tom’s Niger Delta Vigilantes (AC Vol 45 No 18)...
Prince Farah Ipalibo (Dagogo Farah): Like George a former commander in Mujahid Dokubo-Asari’s Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF)...
Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari: Son of a judge and born Melford Dokubo Goodhead Junior Asari graduated from leading the Ijaw Youth Congress into armed direct action against foreign oil companies...
This is not surprising as MEND and its affiliates grew out of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force of Mujahid Dokubo-Asari who had cut his own amnesty deal with President Olusegun Obasanjo...
MEND's top leaders are Government Tompolo in Delta State the most powerful commander in the Delta and Farah Dagogo who leads operations in Rivers State in coordination with veterans Ateke Tom Soboma George and Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari...
Delta historians draw parallels between this amnesty and a similar deal with gang leaders Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari and Ateke Tom in 2004...
It is believed to include rocket-propelled grenade launchers newly acquired German assault rifles and maybe some of the surface-to-air missiles that other groups such as those loyal to the semi-retired gangster Mujahid Dokubo-Asari had acquired (AC Vol 48 No 23)...
They repeat a pattern established when the gang leaders Mujahid Dokubo-Asari and Ateke Tom were fighting it out across the Delta in 2003-05 (AC Vol 48 No 23)...