Asari Dokubo Cries Out: My 3,000 Men Unpaid for 44 Months in Imo State

 IMO: Asari Dokubo Admits 44 Months Without Pay for Fighters Deployed in Imo State as Lolo Nneka Chimezie and IPOB Accuse His Group of Fueli...

 IMO: Asari Dokubo Admits 44 Months Without Pay for Fighters Deployed in Imo State as Lolo Nneka Chimezie and IPOB Accuse His Group of Fueling Insecurity

Former Niger Delta militant leader Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo has revealed that his operatives, deployed to Imo State since 2021, have gone unpaid for 44 months despite sustained frontline operations that have resulted in injuries and deaths among his men.

In a frank interview with The Sun published on Sunday, March 29, 2026, Dokubo disclosed that his group was invited by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari through the Department of State Services (DSS) in October 2021. Their initial mandate, he said, was to secure elections and dismantle camps allegedly linked to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its Eastern Security Network (ESN) in Imo and Anambra states. The deployment has since become permanent in Imo.

“As I am talking to you, for 44 months, I have not been paid. For the services of the men who are fighting at the forefront, getting injured and dying,” Dokubo told the newspaper. He added that he has over 3000 personnel in the theatre and that his group has conducted joint operations with various military formations across Imo, Plateau, Niger, and Zamfara states. “We have been in Imo permanently since 2021… If somebody was not paid for 44 months in Imo, what do you expect him to achieve?” he asked. Dokubo insisted his outfit is not involved in pipeline surveillance contracts but supports such initiatives. He claimed his group has been funding operations from personal savings to prevent collapse.

The revelation comes amid persistent allegations that Dokubo’s men recruited as part of the Imo State government’s Ebubeagu security outfit in 2021 are themselves contributors to the wave of insecurity, kidnappings, and killings that have plagued Imo and other parts of the South-East.

Lolo Nneka Chimezie, National President of the Igbo Women Assembly and a vocal critic of security arrangements in the region, has repeatedly linked Dokubo’s activities and those of the Imo State government under Governor Hope Uzodinma to the manufactured insecurity in Biafraland. In recent public statements and video analyses, Chimezie has questioned the whereabouts and conduct of Dokubo’s recruits, describing their operations as part of a broader pattern of state-sponsored violence aimed at discrediting IPOB and the Biafra struggle. She has accused federal and state authorities of contracting external elements, including Dokubo’s group, to carry out killings and create chaos in order to justify heavy militarisation.

Chimezie has consistently maintained that the Nigerian military and affiliated groups, rather than IPOB or ESN, bear primary responsibility for the insecurity in the South-East. Her latest interventions, including discussions on “crises rocking IPOB” and “Asari Dokubo’s activities in the South East,” have drawn attention to how unpaid or poorly managed vigilante-style operations exacerbate rather than resolve the crisis.

IPOB has long levelled similar accusations against Dokubo, describing him as a major actor in the persecution of Igbo people and the sponsor of havoc in Imo State. IPOB alleged that Dokubo was hired by the federal government to recruit cultists and militants specifically to undermine IPOB and ESN, with his operations responsible for many of the unexplained killings and abductions attributed to “unknown gunmen.” IPOB has repeatedly called for international probes into the sources of South-East insecurity, pointing fingers at politicians, ex-militants like Dokubo, and state-backed security outfits.

As insecurity continues to ravage parts of Imo State, with frequent reports of shootings, kidnappings, and community clashes, Dokubo’s disclosure of prolonged non-payment has raised fresh questions about the sustainability and accountability of privatised or quasi-official security arrangements in the South-East. 

The situation remains fluid, with residents caught between official narratives of fighting insecurity and persistent accusations that some of those deployed to restore peace may instead be perpetuating the violence.

Family Writers Press International.