President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has barred all ex-Niger Delta militant leaders from visiting him in the presidential villa, Abuja, Leadership Newspaper is reporting.
It is reported that requests for courtesy visits by notable militant leaders and ethnic militias from the oil-rich region to Tinubu in the villa have lately been disapproved by the presidency.
It was gathered that the decision was taken in the aftermath of the visit to Tinubu by the leader of the defunct Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujarhedeen Asari-Dokubo, on June 16 this year.
Asari-Dokubo, a di£-hard and staunchest supporter of Tinubu, backed and supported the president in the run-up to the 2023 presidential election. It was gathered that Tinubu, in ordering the action, was disturbed by public utterances and actions of Asari-Dokubo in the aftermath of his visit to him days after he assumed the mantle of leadership of the country.
LEADERSHIP gathered that Tinubu was bothered that all “verbal vituperations and militant activities” of Asari-Dokubo in the Niger Delta were subsequently linked to him after the June audience with the notable activist. As he stepped out of the Villa, Asari-Dokubo, in a chat with the State House reporters, took on the Armed Forces, accusing its personnel of being neck-deep in economic sabotag£, especially crude oil theft and vandalism of oil equipment in the region.
The allegation, it was revealed, embarrassed and shocked Tinubu, especially because he made the shocking revelation, moments after departing his office.
Dependable sources in the presidency told Leadership Newspaper that Dokubo’s outbursts against the military within the vicinity of the villa gave the inkling that the president shared the same views with the notable ex-militant commander.
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