Abu Simbel Temple

Ex-militants beg Buhari to sustain amnesty

Niger-Delta ex-militants on arrival at the Murtala Murtala International Airport Lagos

Some ex-militants have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sustain the amnesty programme beyond 2015.

The call came just as the Buhari-led Federal Government ended the pipeline surveillance contracts given to ethnic militias such as the Oodua Peoples’ Congress and ex-Niger-Delta militants.

The amnesty programme, which was initiated by the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, started in 2009 and was supposed to end this year.

Buhari had also stated that the programme, which had gulped billions of dollars, would stop when due but promised to continue to develop the Niger Delta.

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However, an ex-militant leader, Ramsey Oyakemeagbegha, while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, said it was not yet time to stop the amnesty programme.

Oyakemeagbegha, who benefitted from the third phase of the amnesty programme, stressed the need for the extension to enable the government address the challenges and the neglect that necessitated the amnesty.

He said that ending the programme in 2015 would not benefit the ex-militants that embraced the amnesty programme in the third phase in 2013.

He said, “We, in the third phase amnesty programme, are also of the view that the programme should continue and not stop in 2015 as scheduled. So, I urge the Federal Government to review the schedule.

“The third phase came in not too long ago. Even for those who started in the first phase there is not much on the ground to engage them meaningfully.

“The communities are still largely underdeveloped and most of the things that triggered militancy are not attended to as expected.”

Oyakemeagbegha added that the people had yet to access potable water, good education and functional health facilities.

According to him, pollution occasioned by the oil industry still continues in addition to unemployment in the land.

“In the light of the above, making 2015 the end of the Presidential Amnesty Programme spells more trouble for our region and the nation.”

Meanwhile, Buhari on Monday, ordered men of the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Army to protect pipelines across Lagos State and other strategic areas of the country.

However, a former Niger Delta militant, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, said he and his men had not been paid as promised.

Asari-Dokubo said Buhari must pay the ex-militants because the surveillance contract was given to them legitimately by the Federal Government led by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Asari-Dokubo explained that the contract, which was given to them by Jonathan shortly before the last elections, was for three months and it elapsed on June 15.

He said that the ex-minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, did not sign for the payment of the pipeline surveillance contract before she left office.

The pipeline protection project, which cuts across Lagos, Ogun, Bayelsa, Ondo, Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States, was executed from March 15, 2015 to June 15.

Asari-Dokubo urged President Buhari to pay the contractors their money if he was truly committed to the rule of law.

He said, “If Buhari is law-abiding and if his government respects the rule of law, the contractual obligations will be followed. The contract was awarded to corporate entities by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. We did not go in as individuals and the corporate entities are regarded as individuals under the law. No contract was awarded to any specific individual.”

When contacted on the telephone, the National Coordinator of the OPC, Mr. Gani Adams, told our correspondent that he and his men had not been paid by the Federal Government.

Adams said he was confident of getting his money.

“The contract was meant to last for three months and it has now ended. We have not been paid but I am working on getting the money. It was you people in PUNCH that kept on making noise about the issue.

“Pipeline contract is not a big deal. We in the OPC had been spending as much as N700m a year on our various operations. How much was the pipeline contract?” he said.