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Asari Dokubo brandishing an AK-47 rifle in a viral video shared on twitter

UPDATED: ANALYSIS: Asari Dokubo’s flaunting of weapons highlights inequality before Nigeria’s lawA spokesperson for the Nigerian police told PREMIUM TIMES he would find out why the former militant leader was yet to be arrested like others who committed similar offences.

Many Nigerians who believe in a popular legal principle, “equality before the law,” must have thought that the country’s authorities would immediately arrest Asari Dokubo, a former Niger Delta Militant, for brandishing rifles in a video clip. But they were wrong!

More than eight months after the clip surfaced on the internet, Mr Dokubo was yet to be arrested or summoned for questioning. Instead, the former militant leader has been hobnobbing with the country’s authorities despite brandishing the rifles in clear violation of the Nigerian law.

The video clip began trending on 18 June, about four days after he met with President Bola Tinubu, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, whom he supported during the 25 February presidential election.

But an independent investigation by PREMIUM TIMES found that the clip was released by Mr Dokubo in late September 2022, but first went viral days later in October, about eight months ago. The clip appeared on a YouTube page on 1 October 2022.

The viral clip

In the video clip, Mr Dokubo was heard calling the Igbos “slaves”, whom he said he would have continued to “sell” if not for the intervention of the British government.

The former militant leader, who spoke on varied issues, brandished two AK-47 rifles while threatening to kill all Igbos, an ethnic group predominant in Nigeria’s South-east.

Mr Dokubo is a Kalabari, a part of the Ijaw ethnic nationality in Rivers State, Nigeria’s South-south.
The former militant leader equally mocked the Igbos, saying they were “dying” in large numbers.
“You will do a video to sell that Alhaji has run away? Are you seeing me? I don’t run,” Mr Dokubo stated, apparently referring to himself, as he brandishes the AK-47 rifle.

Asari Dokubo brandishing an AK-47 rifle in a viral video shared on twitter “Una head no correct,” he spoke in Pidgin English, while picking and brandishing another AK-47 rifle. “E be like say una dey look for who go finish una? Look for una everywhere (and) finish una. Una dey see me?” he stated in Pidgin English, apparently threatening Igbos.

When translated into English language, the expression means, “Is like you people (Igbos) are looking for who will kill you all? Someone who will hunt for you everywhere and kill all of you.”

Is Dokubo above the law?
No person shall have in his possession or under his control any firearm or ammunition except with a license from the president or the inspector-general of police, according to the Nigeria’s Firearms Act No 32 of the 1959 CAP F28 LFN 2004.

Offenders face a minimum of ten years imprisonment on conviction. Various persons have been arrested and prosecuted for either illegal possession of firearms or making ethnic slurs in social media.

The police in Abuja, for instance, arrested a pastor of the House on the Rock Refuge Church, Uche Aigbe, in February, after a video clip of him carrying an AK-47 rifle during a Sunday church service went viral on social media.

The police would later charge the pastor at a magistrate court in Abuja with conspiracy to commit murder, illegal possession of prohibited firearms, inciting disturbance and criminal intimidation.

Mr Aigbe, through his lawyer, said he got the firearm from a police officer posted to the church, and had only used the firearm for an illustration while preaching a sermon about faith in the church.

The police said the offence was punishable under Section 111 of the Firearms Act CAP F28, LFN 2004 and contravened Sections 97, 114 and 397 of the Penal Code. The case was still ongoing as of the time of this report.

Also, the police in Osun State, on 16 June, arrested a social media user who made anti-Igbo tweet. “Let’s kill all the Igbos. Let’s flush them out of Yoruba lands. I hate these people with passion. They are violent people. They are the worst. They hate us. Let’s hate them without holding back,” the police quoted the suspect as posting on his Twitter handle on 18 May.

The police said the twitter post violated “social media policy” on hate speech. What the police may have referred to appeared to be the Cybercrime Act 2015.

Section 26 (1) (a-b) of the Act prohibits persons from distributing or making available, any racist or xenophobic material to the public through a computer system or network; threatening through a computer system or network persons for the reason that they belong to a group distinguished by race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin, as well as, religion.

The Act in paragraph (c) of the section also prohibits group of persons from insulting publicly through a computer system or network persons for the reason that they belong to a group distinguished by race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion.

Offenders, on conviction, face imprisonment for a term of not more than five years or to a fine of not more than N10,000,000.00 or both such fine and imprisonment.

Mr Dokubo, in the viral clip, violated both the Cybercrime Act 2015 and Nigeria’s Firearms Act. But he was yet to be arrested or summoned by the Nigerian Police.

When contacted, the force spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, told PREMIUM TIMES that he would find out why the former militant leader was yet to be arrested or prosecuted like others who committed similar offences. Mr Adejobi, a chief superintendent of police, promised to revert to this newspaper with answers. But he was yet to do so several days after.

Lawyers react
Stanley Alieke, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Dokubo, as a civilian and non-security agent, was not permitted by the law to possess a “combatant weapon” such as AK-47 rifle.

“Possession of firearms is in itself a crime,” Mr Alieke said, adding that even a combatant was not allowed to have a firearm outside his duty post without permission from his superiors.

The lawyer, however, said the principle of equality before the law has been a cliché used in courts of law, but not practicable especially in Nigeria. He said like Mr Dokubo, other people who have issued threats and made ethnic slurs in the country in the past were yet to be prosecuted.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said of non-prosecution of offenders. Only licensed gun holders can carry guns. And there is the type of gun you can be given a licence for. It’s for hunting purposes,” said Monday Ubani, an Abuja-based lawyer and chairman of Section on Public Interest and Development Law conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). It’s only the security agencies that can carry AK-47 rifles,” he said.

Mr Ubani said the fact that Mr Dokubo had not been arrested by the police suggests that the principle of equality before the law was not practicable in Nigeria.

“It’s clearly illegal,” the lawyer said of Mr Dokubo’s brandishing of rifles and threatening of the Igbos. If it is true that a Nigerian citizen brandished a gun, threatening a whole race, I think the security agencies should be up and doing in effecting an arrest of that individual and bringing him to justice.”

He regretted that there is “extreme lawlessness” in Nigeria and that some people were not prosecuted when they violated the law because of their role in bringing the leaders to power.

For Bulus Atsen, another legal practitioner, the arrest of Mr Dokubo by Nigerian authorities was unlikely despite “clearly violating” the law.

“I said so because here in Nigeria even though the general principle is that nobody is above the law, times and times again, we have seen where the application of the law is done in a manner that favours some people over others,” Mr Atsen, a former chairperson of the NBA in Abuja, said.

The lawyer said Mr Dokubo may have been ignored by the authorities because of possible “economic implications” his arrest would cause. He cited Mr Dokubo’s role in ending militancy in the Niger Delta region and involvement in the protection of crude oil pipelines in the region.

Editor’s remarks: This report has been updated on 16 July, 2023 to reflect that Asari Dokubo violated the Cybercrime Act 2015.

“Una head no correct,” he spoke in Pidgin English, while picking and brandishing another AK-47 rifle. “E be like say una dey look for who go finish una? Look for una everywhere (and) finish una. Una dey see me?” he stated in Pidgin English, apparently threatening Igbos.

The police in Osun State, on 16 June, arrested a social media user who made anti-Igbo tweet. “Let’s kill all the Igbos. Let’s flush them out of Yoruba lands. I hate these people with passion. They are violent people. They are the worst. They hate us. Let’s hate them without holding back,” the police quoted the suspect as posting on his Twitter handle on 18 May.

TemplarLandry:
You don't know for sure if the gun he brandished was registered or not.

Racoon:
What constitutional status does this militant and hardened criminal has to justify him having access to assult weapons? Don't justify any criminality and treasonable act

TemplarLandry:
Are you the law court which convicted him?

Racoon:
Do you need any law to discern or know that Asari Dokubo is a confirmed criminal, atrocious and treasonable element?

TemplarLandry:
How sure are you the gun he brandished was unregistered?

Racoon:
So RPGs, Rocket launchers, and all these unauthorised arms welding squad are government authorised? Then me and you ought to have our too.

TemplarLandry:
You don't know for sure if the gun he brandished was registered or not.

TemplarLandry:
You're just being too emotional. You'll be fine.