What I did to survive when Obasanjo threw me in underground cell - Asari Dokubo recounts

Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, an Ijaw activist, has said the Holy Qur'an was his companion while in prison custody.

Speaking during a Facebook Live on Monday, June 26, monitored by Legit.ng, the former separatist said he found solace in the Qur'an when ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo instigated his arrest during the former Nigerian leader's reign.

Recall that Dokubo was arrested in September 2005 and subsequently detained for issuing a threat to bomb oil installations across the Niger Delta region.

The threats to attack oil wells and pipelines by the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) which he led, caused companies operating in the area to withdraw most of their personnel from the Niger Delta.

Due to the crisis this precipitated, then-Nigerian president, Obasanjo, called Dokubo and the leader of the defunct Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV), Ateke Tom, to Abuja for peace talks which were in large part a failure.

After his refusal to align with the Obasanjo government and due to his public support for the self-determination of his native Ijaw people and independence for the Niger Delta, Dokubo was arrested and charged with treason by the federal government.

On June 14, 2007, he was released on bail as part of President Umaru Yar'Adua's (now late) pledge to try and bring peace to the Niger Delta region.

Making a flashback to the incarceration, Dokubo said during his Facebook Live on Monday, June 26: “When I was in prison, when Obasanjo buried me alive, because I stood up and stood by the side of our people, when he buried me alive underground, when it seems that all hope are lost, when Obasanjo asked people whether I have gone mad, whether I have gone mental, in that moment, in the solitary confinement, Allah touches me, a strange power comes over me.

"If you don’t experience these things, you will not have the guts that I have.

“When others were crying those days, I was reciting my Quran.”