Amnesty: Ex-Militants Issue FG 7-Day Ultimatum

Security agents operating in the Niger Delta region should brace up for more confrontations, if the aggrieved ex-militants from the region who claim that they were denied registration, carry out their threats of returning to the creeks.

Last Monday, the ex-militants gave the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to absorb them in the amnesty programmes.

A forthnight ago, a group of militants went on rampage and destroyed property as well as looted shops in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. They said they would no longer guarantee the security of oil installations if the government failed to register them.

The leaders, in a statement signed on their behalf by ‘General’ Inami David, insisted that they deserved to be registered and documented, having demonstrated repentance by submitting their arms.

David, in the statement made available to newsmen in Yenagoa, accused the team which carried out the verification and documentation of the ex-militants in the region, of doing shoddy job by leaving out a lot of people that would have benefitted from the exercise.

He said the team that carried out the exercise at the Sector Two Command Headquarters of the Joint Task Force in Yenagoa was biased, accusing its members of placing some camps ahead of others.

He said the ex-militants were denied registration after they were subjected to harsh treatment by members of the committee.

According to him, the sidelined ex-militants were later asked to report to the Police Headquarters in Yenagoa for further instructions.

“We knew that our reporting to the police would achieve no positive result because we did not surrender our weapons to the police. We still went there and we were told to write down our camp details and phone numbers”, he said.

He accused the government of pushing them back to the creeks, warning that such development would have dire consequences on the country’s economy.

He said it was unfortunate that the ex-militants were being maltreated during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“We the aggrieved group in the just concluded verification and documentation exercise, are giving the Federal Government seven days to contact us and include us in the Amnesty programme.

“Unless this happens, we will have no option but to resort to other means of resolving our grievances, which will be of dire consequences to the Federal Government”, he said.

Efforts to reach members of the committee to comment on the allegations was not successful as they were said to have left for Abuja, but sources close to the JTF dismissed the threat as rantings of disgruntled youths.

President Goodluck Jonathan (5th right), Vice President Namadi Sambo (3th left), with members of the Federal Government delegation to the 2012 Christian Pilgrimage after the presentation of their report in Abuja, last Monday.