Nigeria rules out another phase of amnesty programme

Mr Kingsley Kuku,
Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Matters

Nigeria rules out another phase of amnesty programme

The Nigerian government has said that there will be no third phase of the amnesty programme for ex-Niger Delta militants, dashing the hopes of those who protested and blocked the Lokoja-Abuja highway last week.

Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Matters, Mr Kingsley Kuku, condemned the action of the youths who issued a four-day ultimate to the government to include them in the programme lest they return to the trenches to continue attacks on the oil industry.

Kuku described the action as blackmail, saying the government was not disturbed by the protests because it gave opportunity to the youths who were in violent agitation to disarm and join the Amnesty Programme which window closed on October 4, 2009.

He explained that some youths who were clamouring for another phase of the programme should explore other avenues to seek employment and empowerment opportunities, insisting that there would be no further phase of the amnesty programme.

The presidential adviser made the clarification during the pre-departure orientation ceremony in Lagos for 214 ex-militants who were sent to India for vocational training under the post amnesty programme.

Training programme

The training programme covers six and nine months respectively in electrical installation, under water welding, auto mechanics, pipeline fitting, crane operations as well as non-destructive testing.
Kuku, who represented the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, at the event, explained that the 214 ex-militants billed for India were the largest batch to be deployed for training in any country.

He disclosed that sending of the 214 delegates to India for different vocational training programme brought the number to about 2,214 youths who were undergoing various vocational programmes at different countries across the globe.

He said Jonathan condemned “in strong terms” the blocking of the Lokoja-Abuja highway by about 1,600 ex-militants last Thursday, insisting that they could not blackmail the government through such unacceptable display of illegality as an avenue to be enlisted in the amnesty programme.

He explained that inasmuch as the agitation of such youths to get trained and empowered through the amnesty programme could be appreciated, resorting to breach of public peace by taking the laws into their hands was against the spirit of non-violence, “for which genuine ex-militants are known”.

He said it would be completely out of place for anybody to doubt that the Post Amnesty Programme had succeeded, warning detractors, who did not believe in the programme at the point of disarmament, not to erode the many benefits the programme had brought to the Niger Delta region as well as the entire country at large.

Kuku observed that apart from the 20,192 ex-agitators that enrolled in the first phase of the programme that had been fully transformed at the amnesty office demobilisation camp in Obubra, Cross River State, the demobilisation of the second batch of 6,166 ex-militants that enlisted in the second phase would round off their non-violence transformational training by December 20.

NP/Adekusibe/Williams