Asari-Dokubo claim ties with 'martyr' Gaddafi

   
LAGOS Asari-Dokubo, Nigerian ex-militant leader who claims to have lived in Libya and to have had links with Muamer Gaddafii called him a "martyr" on Friday and vowed that his killing would be avenged.
"Gaddafii spilled his blood as a martyr to rekindle the fire of revolution all over the world," Mujahid Asari-Dokuboi, head of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, said. "Those who murdered him will not go scot-free."
 There have been reports that Asari, who previously led a violent militancy in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region, received military training in Libya, but he was vague on the details of his stay there.
 Kadhafi was accused of using Libya's oil wealth to fund and arm rebel groups across Africa.
"Even if I got training in Libya, what is wrong with getting training in Libya?" said Asari, a 48-year-old who was born into a Christian family but who converted to Islam in 1988.
He said he spent time in Libya in 1990 and 1991.
"I was invited by the Libyan government and given a scholarship to go study Islam," he said.
"When I arrived in Libya, they thought that I had revolutionary ideas, so I became close to the leadership and I started talking to them."
Asari said he met other foreigners with similar ideas while in Libya.
 He said he returned and held talks with Gaddafi in early 2010, and claimed he was given $100,000 during that trip. He said however that his movement was not given significant financial support by Gaddafi over the years."The people of the world will rise up against this," he said of Gaddafii's death.
"The time is coming and they will regret this murder they committed against the people."
Asari argued that Libya under Gaddafi had the "highest literacy rate and the best health care in the whole of Africa. As a foreigner, I saw with my eyes."
Asari's group was involved in violence in Nigeria particularly in the early part of last decade.
He was arrested in 2005 on treason charges after he threatened to relaunch his armed campaign for an independent republic in the Niger Delta, but was released in 2007.
Asari says that his movement is now on "sabbatical" since a native of the Niger Delta, Goodluck Jonathan, has been elected president of the country, which is Africa's most populous nation and its largest oil producer.

Nigerian and Ghanian migrants targeted by rebels in Libya

A Nigerian migrant Godspower Wilfred,living in Libya has taken

shelter in a makeshift camp in the south of Tripoli. He is afraid for
his life; not only is he in the middle of a deadly and bloody conflict,
Wilfred is a target to Libyan rebel forces.
"If you go out in the streets, people will hold you and say you are fighting for Gaddafi. I am not a fighter," Wilfred said.

He is one of the many migrants from sub-saharan Africa suspected for being pro-Gaddafi forces and hunted down as such.
During his reign, embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had employed nationals from other African countries as part of a special protection forces.
Now the special forces are left without the protection of Gaddafi
and with the battle taking off in Tripoli, the migrants say "skin
colour alone is enough to mark them out as Gaddafi supporters."
Hassan Abdallah, a migrant from Ghana, finds himself in much the same situation as his Nigerian counterpart, Wilfred.
"Some people are saying that it's the blacks who co-operated with Libyan
soldiers to shoot them or whatever," Abdallah said.
"But we are not among them," he added.
According to reports, the bodies of at least 20 black African men were found outside Gaddafi's compound after rebels captured Tripoli, with their hands tied and a gun shot wound to the head.
With the hunt still on, Abdallah and Wilfred, alongside about 200 migrants, mostly from Nigeria and Ghana, make do with the
harsh conditions of their refugee camp in the south of Tripoli.

Libyan rebels arrests a Nigerian

A Nigerian was amongst eight African men arrested by Libyan rebels engaged in a battle with troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in Zawiya on Sunday.
The Nigerian, Paul Joseph, with seven Africa men were arrested by the rebels and taken to the local intelligence building.
Residents in Zawiya shouted "mercenaries" at them as they were driven across the city to the building. The eight men were handcuffed and looked frigthened as they sat inside the building.
Nigeria's Paul Joseph said he was a worker in Zawiya and that

he was arrested by rebels at his aprtment.
"I left my seven month old pregnant wife behind in the flat, we've been trying to get out of Zawiya but could not."

Libyan rebels and loyalist to Muammar Gaddafi have been engaged in intensive fight for the control of Zawiya on Sunday, a day after opposition forces pushed from the western mountains into the strategic city in their most dramatic advance in months. The city of 200,000 just 50 kilometers west of Tripoli attempted to rise against Gaddafi months ago, near the start of Libya''s civil war, but was crushed. Zawiya has been a key target for rebels waging a new offensive from the mountains in Libya''s far west, near Tunisia''s border.