PORT HARCOURT — The strategic Eleme Junction and the surrounding Igwuruta communities in Rivers State have been pushed to a breaking point, as indigenous residents officially disowned claims by former militant leader Asari Dokubo that recent unrest in the area was an “IPOB invasion.”
In a series of raw, unfiltered videos emerging from the troubled zone on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, hundreds of community members were seen marching through the streets, not with secessionist flags, but with a singular, homegrown demand: the immediate exit of Fulani herdsmen and certain northern “Aboki” traders from their ancestral lands.
The “Aboki Must Go” Uprising
The tension, which has simmered for weeks, boiled over following a violent confrontation at Eleme Junction that left a local youth dead. While Asari Dokubo took to social media to allege that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had “invaded” Rivers to spark a religious war, the people on the ground tell a different story.
“Asari is sitting in his palace talking trash while we are the ones being robbed and killed in our farms,” shouted one youth leader in a viral clip. “This is not about IPOB. This is about our mothers who can no longer go to the farm because of herdsmen. We are saying ‘Aboki Must Go’ because we want our peace back. Shame on Asari for lying against his own people!”
The “Missing” Militant?
As the crisis intensifies, a new question has begun to dominate the conversation in Port Harcourt:Â “Where is Asari Dokubo?”
The former warlord, usually quick to release daily video broadcasts, has been noticeably absent from his usual public haunts since the reported arrival of U.S. Special Forces in Nigeria on February 5. While his aides insist he is merely “resting” at his Torusarama-Piri palace, critics and social media observers have mocked his sudden silence.
“The ‘Lion’ has become a ‘Kitten’ since the Americans landed,” mocked one popular commentator on X. “He was brave enough to threaten the whole of Igboland, but now that the communities he claimed to protect are actually crying out, he is nowhere to be found.”
“Fueling the Fire”—Nigerians Blast Dokubo’s Narrative
The backlash against Dokubo has been relentless, with Nigerians across the country accusing him of being a “merchant of conflict” who profits from ethnic division.
- “A Narrative for Sale”:Â Critics have blasted the former militant for trying to “sell a lie” to the Presidency. “Asari wants to make it look like IPOB is the problem so he can get another security contract,” argued an Abuja-based security analyst. “The real problem is the breakdown of trust between the locals and the herders, but that doesn’t pay as well as ‘fighting terrorists’.”
- “Divide and Rule”:Â Rivers residents expressed disgust that Dokubo is attempting to create a rift between Rivers people and their South-East neighbors. “We are all one in the struggle against insecurity. To call a community protest an ‘IPOB invasion’ is a classic move to divide and rule us,” a community elder in Eleme noted.
- “Executive Silence”: Nigerians also questioned why the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, and Governor Siminalayi Fubara have not moved to curb Dokubo’s “inflammatory” broadcasts before they trigger a full-scale ethnic clash.
The Call for “Self-Help”
With the police maintaining a fragile presence at the Refinery Junction and Eleme, the affected communities have issued a final warning. They insist that if the government does not address the “menace” of the herdsmen and the rising crime rate at the junction, they will be forced into “total self-defense.”
As of Tuesday night, the Rivers State Police Command has remained silent on Dokubo’s specific allegations, focusing instead on a “massive patrol” of the Port Harcourt-Aba expressway to prevent further market burnings.
