Main Militants Offer To
Surrender
One
of the main militant leaders in Bayelsa state, Niger
Delta region of Nigeria, Mr. Joshua Matclever has
offered to surrender all arms and ammunitions in his
possession to the government.
Matclever formally accepted government’s offer of
amnesty in the capital, Yenagoa, on Wednesday,
saying he was the first militant to denounce
militancy last year without any monetary inducement.
What’s next?
The next move for Matclever, a militant leader
operating from a camp in Olugbo village, Southern
Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, is to
lay down his arms along with his 400 loyalists.
He claimed to have started his militant activities
with a genuine intention to draw the attention of
the government to the deprivations in the Niger
Delta region before the operation was hijacked by
frustrated elements.
The former militant leader, who claimed to have
operated the largest camp in the state before
denouncing his membership on the eighteenth of July
2008, said he later realised that the activity was
becoming counter-productive.
Overtures
He praised government’s recent initiative of
granting amnesty to militants, thanking the Bayelsa
state governor, Timpreye Silva for providing him
with the logistics to disarm.
Mr Matclever appealed to his former colleagues to
accept the olive branch extended by the government
to allow for the development of the region.
The former militant leader was a state coordinator
of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta,
MEND, before leaving the creeks.
The Nigerian government had last week unveiled the
terms of a package of amnesty to militants in the
Niger Delta region to lay down their arms within
sixty days.
FRCN/Qasim/Yinka