2015: ‘Buhari is not a threat’ – Asari denies assassination sponsorship allegation

Controversial Ijaw leader, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari has denied allegations that he sponsored the assassination attempt on General Muhammadu Buhari’s life.

He also condemned a statement by President Goodluck Jonathan in which he stated that Nigeria would have been in full crisis mode had Buhari been killed in the attack.

Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Asari said, “I do not work for Jonathan. What the President said was wrong. The life of Buhari is not more important than 87 people that died in that blast. It is unfortunate that the President made such a statement. I wonder why the President will be promoting one person above other Nigerians. That statement from the President was very unfortunate. I do not have the capacity to tell the President to apologise, but I still insist that he should not have made such a statement,” Dokubo-Asari told journalists on Tuesday in Abuja.

“Soon after the blast, a cross-gender person came out and was arrested. Even the mother of the person arrested said he was insane. Social media reports said I gave them N5m to carry out the attack. These things are masterminded. The first one is against President Jonathan and the other one is against me.

“I did not pay anybody to carry out any assassination attempt on Buhari. I do not have anything against him. He is not a threat. He will fail in 2015. For the records, I do not operate a Twitter account and anyone saying I tweeted that there would be more attacks is only using my name.”

“They want to silence me because they know the role I will play in 2015. They have also sponsored reports in Benin Republic that I am the person financing Boko Haram. Another Islamic scholar also said I am the one sponsoring Boko Haram to destroy the North on behalf of President Jonathan.

Asari alleged that he visited Gaddafi before his death and the late Libyan leader told him that he was going to bankroll Buhari’s 2011 elections.

“In March 2010, I was a guest of Maummar Gaddafi. He told me that Sule Armah and Buba Galadima were in Libya ahead of the 2011 elections. Gaddafi told me that he had been funding Buhari’s elections in the past. I want the Department of State Security to investigate if these names I have mentioned were not in Libya during the period I am talking about.”