Sunday 4th February was as usual, a miserable, depressed and wretched day for His Excellency, Chief James Onanefe Ibori. But this year’s 4th of February was a particularly gloomy one; it marked the 20th year of that murder most foul, the assassination of Chief Aminasoari Kala (A.K) Dikibo.
For the past twenty years Ibori has tried all in his power to remind Nigerians of Dikibo, who was the Deputy National Chairman, South-South geopolitical zone, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when he was assassinated in broad daylight on a Nigerian motor road. Year in, year out, Ibori has had full page newspaper advertisements published in memory of Dikibo.
That he has been the only Nigerian, among the numerous movers and shakers of the Nigerian political class who remembers Dikibo does not appear to bother him. That his efforts have not moved the Nigeria Police Force or the Department of State Security (DSS) to appear to be still interested in solving that murder, does not in any way bother Ibori. He appears to be doing what he has taken to be his personal duty; as though living the saying – “if you can’t change the world for the better, don’t let the world change you”.
Dikibo was lion-hearted. He was a politician with strong convictions.
He was not a double-crossing weasel that would change positions like the weather vane. He often stood his ground like a high tower – there for all to see. Yes, he was the veritable Dede Ukwu – the Big Brother, as he was called in his Okirika locality of Rivers state where he was the Chief of a well-respected Canoe War House.
And Ibori continues to mourn him because Dikibo fully identified with Ibori’s project of trying to unite the South-South politicians so that the could speak with one voice in matters concerning that geopolitical zone. Also, Dikibo was working in the service of that cause when assassins cut him down.
An audacious and forward-looking Ibori had convened a summit of South-South politicians in Asaba, the Delta state capital for the first weekend in the February of 2004 – exactly 20 years ago. Burning in Ibori’s mind was a flint hard idea, novel and bold; that the South-South should begin to work towards having a son or daughter as the occupant of the choicest piece of real estate in Nigeria; the Aso Rock presidential residence.
As the PDP had zoned the presidency to the North after Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s 2003 – 2007 second term, it meant that the push was actually to ensnare the vice-presidential position for the South-South in 2007. Then the Vice-President would ease into the main presidential office afterwards. And that was exactly what happened – as President Goodluck Jonathan became Vice President to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, a friend Ibori remembers and publishes a memorial advertisement for on his death day, annually. Also, the summit was to discuss how to work to have the amount of oil revenue accruing to the oil producing states increased. But the story jumps!
Dikibo, in line with the PDP zoning formula, was already campaigning to be the party National Chairman, which meant that the next President, come 2007, would come from the North. For some reasons, some highly placed politicians in Abuja opposed that Asaba summit. And it is on record that some of their South -South lackeys by then, supported Abuja. Not only that, a particular Governor had asked all invitees from his state to keep away from Ibori and his Asaba summit. Yes, a state Governor had requested Dikibo to stay away from that meeting. But the South-South champion, Dikibo, disdaining that stay away call, was well on his way to the summit when some people ensured he was unable to disobey that Governor’s orders. He had flown into Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, hopped into a car to make it to Asaba by road. His trip ended around Isiagwu village, close to Ogwashi-Uku, Aniocha South LGA, Delta state.
He was killed execution style from close range. A gun was poked under the right hand side of his jaw. As the trigger was pulled and the shot rang out, the bullet escaped from the roof of the Jeep, splattering Dikibo’s brain everywhere. The assassins killed more than Dikibo that day; they killed the last real push of the peoples of the Niger Delta region to peacefully speak with one voice in seeking for increased monies that accrue to the area as a percentage of the oil royalty.
A day or two after Dikibo was assassinated, Obasanjo announced in Lagos that Dikibo was felled by armed robbers. That may have been the case…but the man was shot execution style; the bullet entered from beneath the right hand side of his jaw, escaped from his head and hit the roof of his car. It is curious how armed robbers could have so shot a man who refused to stop for them on the highway. They should have shot straight and hit his face.
In a letter to Obasanjo, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, now a Senator, recalled: “I am further worried because the late A.K. Dikibo complained to Governor DSP Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State and myself at the Port Harcourt Airport three days before his brutal assassination that some powerful persons in the Presidency and a governor from one of the South- South states of the country were planning to kill him. Though he looked ruffled and agitated, we never knew his death was imminent”. Kalu wrote to inform him that some people were also after his own life. No wonder Audu Ogbeh, when he was PDP National Chairman wrote to Obasanjo that a nest of killers existed in the polity.
Unfortunately, Nigeria appears determined to deny Dikibo and his family justice. No matter; Ibori continues to mourn that courageous man, a true lion, the Dede Ukwu, the Aminisabo of Okirika, Rivers state.
Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria