FORMER militant leader, Mujahadeen Asari Dokubo, yesterday relived his experience in the hands of the Benin Republic police who arrested him last week.
He said Beninous authorities accused him of founding and sponsoring the Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
Dokubo, who was released following the intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan, spoke on Liberty Radio, Kaduna.
He is currently based in the capital, Cotonou, where he runs a chain of businesses including a private university.
But he denied reports that he was flown to Abuja in a Presidential jet after his release.
He claimed that his arrest was instigated by some people in Benin who are envious of his achievements.
He said: “Some people thought that my university will force their own to close down. They said I’m an English speaking person and my schools are doing very well. They are tri-lingual, English, French and Arabic and so many people are getting attracted.
“From the way they planned it, there was no way I could have been released because they (police) took my visa; my businesses were closed down, and they alleged that I am the founder of Boko Haram. That was the charges that they leveled at me: that I am the founder of Boko Haram.
“That I built some mosques in Benin Republic and they closed down the mosques, saying why should I be building mosques in my schools. I was left incommunicado, all my staff were arrested.
“We don’t know who (instigators of arrest) they are, but from the question I was asked, it all points to one area and that is the university. All the security services in Benin, everybody was involved.
Dokubo attributed the escalation of the Boko Haram violence to the killing of the leader of the sect, Muhammed Yusuf, during the Yar’Adua administration.
On the proposed national conference, he said: “in a situation where you don’t take decision by yourself, as events come, you tackle them. If we are to take decisions by ourselves, we would have preferred the conference holding before election.
“But the conference is not sovereign. When we go to the conference, we will go with our agenda. We want sovereign national conference, not national conference.
“If we boycott the conference, we will not succeed. So we would go to the conference, even if we have issue with the conference, on nomenclature, because the conference should be totally sovereign.”
