Asari Dokubo, a militant leader, boasted that President Muhammadu Buhari hired him to protect the Abuja-Kaduna highway.
The highway gained a reputation for being dangerous for travellers during the Buhari administration due to frequent kidnappings and murders.
However, during the final days of the previous administration, reports of violence dropped significantly.
When he paid a visit to President Bola Tinubu at Aso Rock last month, Dokubo boasted that his men were responsible for the axis’s stability.
He had said:
There is a full-scale war going on and the blackmail of the Nigerian state by the Nigerian military is shameful. They said they do not have enough armament and people listen to this false narrative. They are lying. They are liars. I repeat they are liars because I am a participant.
I am a participant in this war. I fight on the side of the government of the Nigerian state in Plateau, Niger, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Rivers. And in Abuja today, you are travelling to Kaduna on this road. It is not the army that makes it possible for you to travel to Abuja or travel to Kaduna, and vice versa. It is my men, employed by the government of the Nigerian state, stationed in Niger.
Today, you travel to Baga, you go to Shiroro, you go to Wase. We have lost so many men and in all these engagements, we don’t even have one per cent of the armament deployed by the Nigerian military. One per cent and we have had resounding success. So, this blackmail must end. They (Nigerian Army) have enough resources to fight. Instead of fighting, they are busy stealing. They are busy making the government spend unnecessarily.
Dokubo also accused the military of stealing oil, but while the military refuted the claim, there was no official response to the issue of securing the Abuja-Kaduna highway.
Dokubo boasted in a new video that his intervention had restored peace and stability to the road.
He stated that, despite not being on good terms with Buhari for the majority of his administration, the ex-President saw potential in him and assigned him a critical task.
If the Buhari-led government can engage me to bring safety for the people on the Abuja-Kaduna road, it should be commended. Do you know how many lives were saved? Do you know how many people were brought out from depression and trauma? Have you ever spoken to people who have been kidnapped?…, he said.
We did not employ ourselves. The government saw the potential in us and knowing that we can deliver and they engaged us. That the Buhari government engaged me shows that they know who I am. I was not a friend of Buhari. For Seven years, I was anti-Buhari. Buhari with all that saw the capacity in me that I am capable and the government came.
Efforts to get the reaction of Garba Shehu, ex-spokesman to Buhari, were not successful as of the time of filing this report as he declined calls put through to him.
Discussion about this post