Adviser Warns On Limits Of Amnesty Office

The Special Adviser to

President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Kingsley Kuku, has said that the Presidential Amnesty office was not established to be a security outfit.

Kuku said this in a statement signed by Head, Media and Communications, Presidential Amnesty Office, Mr Henry Ugbolue,   in Lagos last Friday.

He explained that the office was established by the Federal Government to coordinate empowerment programmes for Niger Delta youths, who were agitating for the development of the Niger Delta region.

The statement said that the explanation became necessary following complaints by some persons that the Presidential Amnesty office should be in the best position to curtail occasional security breaches in the Niger Delta region.

Kuku said that the office did not have the powers to stop any person, who willfully decided to commit crime in the Niger Delta.

“The Amnesty Office has neither guns nor ammunitions, and thus it cannot physically combat willful crime or criminality in the Niger Delta.

“Enforcing extant laws that deal with crime in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country is constitutionally vested on the Nigeria Police, the State Security Service and of course the Armed Forces, as currently represented in the states in the Niger Delta by the Joint Military Task Force.’’

Kuku said in the statement that the Amnesty Office had, through its past programmes for ex-militant youths, brought political and security stability to the people of the Niger Delta and the country in general.

“The Amnesty office has successfully achieved this by overseeing the disarmament, immobilisation and currently reintegrating the entire 26,358 Niger Delta ex-agitators, who accepted the offer of amnesty and enlisted in the amnesty programme in two phases.”

Kuku, however, assured Nigerians that the officers and men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) had the capacity to protect vital oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta.

He said they also had the powers to bring to book anybody who breached public peace in the area.

“The Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan, has clearly demonstrated that it is a listening administration that also acts in the greater interest of the citizenry.

“The Amnesty Office is aware that a number of the ex-agitators have secured pipeline protection and surveillance jobs from the Ministry of Petroleum,” the statement said.