Who is Asari Dokubo?
Asari Dokubo (born 1964), also known as Melford Dokubo Goodhead Jr., is a prominent political figure of the Ijaw ethnic group in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region.
Beginning in 2001, he was president of the Ijaw Youth Council and later founded the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, which would become one of the most prominent armed groups operating in the Niger Delta region.
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Biography
Melford Dokubo Goodhead Jr.’s son Asari Dokubo was born in Buguma, Rivers State, on June 1, 1964. He was raised in a Christian middle-class family by a judge and a housewife.
He completed his elementary and secondary education in Port Harcourt before being accepted to the prestigious University of Calabar (UniCal) in Cross River State to study law. Later, he left the school, citing conflicts with the administration as his cause.
He was admitted to Rivers State University of Science and Technology in an effort to complete his education, but he dropped out for the same reasons he had left UniCal.
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Age
Asari was born in 1964 and is now 59 years old.
Personal Life
Asari Dokubo is married to Boma Dokubo, and together they have four children: Amirah, Hassan, Hussain, and Osama. Alhaja Zainab Asari Dokubo, his first wife, died in a car accident en route to Ibadan in 2016.
Net Worth
The net worth of Asari is estimated to be N622.5 million, approximately ($1.5 million). He is a wealthy and well-known political figure in Nigeria.
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Career and Activism
After dropping out of school, Asari Dokubo converted to Islam and changed his name to Mujahid Dokubo-Asari to reflect the conversion.
He became actively involved in politics in the 1990s, running for two offices in Rivers State (1992 and 1998) but failing to secure either seat.
The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) was founded in 1998 with the primary goal of promoting the interests of the Niger Delta’s Ijaw ethnic group. Asari was appointed to the organization’s vice-presidency as a founding member.
In 2001, he was elected president of IYC, leading the organization to pursue an agenda of “Resource Control and Self-Determination by Any Means Necessary.”
By 2004, he had established the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), which would become a major source of unrest in the Delta region. The NDPVF, a militant group, was largely funded by local and regional politicians seeking large profits from the region’s oil revenue. The group was also involved in illegal oil ‘bunkering’ and other forms of local resource extraction.