FORMER Militants in the Niger
Delta under the Third Phase Group has called on the Federal Government to
aggressively pursue development of the Niger Delta to forestall another crisis
in the region. The former militants, who flayed the actions of former
Presidential Adviser to the President on
the Amnesty Programme, Kingsley Kuku, said that the call is timely as such
failure in the past led to increase in militancy and unrest, which caused
drastic drop in national earning.
They warned the current handlers
to be mindful of what plagued the Kuku regime, claiming that the amnesty
programme was a huge failure under its immediate past coordinator, Kuku.
The Ex-militants call was
contained in a joint statement by National Chairman, Diepreye Ogbetebe; Vice
Chairman, John Government; Secretary, Etarighobe Thompson and Delta State
Chairman, Prince Ogor.
They spoke as another Niger Delta
group, Egbema Voice in Warri North Local Government Area, Delta State,
yesterday, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call security agencies employing state apparatus to terrorize and
harm the reputation of ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias
Tompolo, to order.
The ex-militants said: “The Programme under Kuku specifically failed
as a result of mismanagement of funds allocated for the programme by the
Federal Government. Five groups under the third phase were marginalized and
there were malicious diversion and deprivation of genuine and real persons that
surrendered their arms and ammunition for which the slots were legitimately
approved for.”
They also listed “incompetent,
corrupt and unfair representation of Phase III by the so called self-imposed
national leaders, deprivation/non-documentation of some of the ex-militants
during the documentation exercise handled by inter-agency task forces in the
various JTF barracks” as factors that hallmarked the past regime.
The group said that proper
verification of arms and ammunition surrendered by various groups and war lords
was not done before the allocation and disbursement of the 3642 slots to
commence the Phase III of the programme.
“Despite the infinitesimal amount
of the 3642 slots approved for Phase III, most of the camps that surrendered
less than 20 guns were given up to 50 slots while some of the camps that
surrendered above 50 guns were given three slots due to malicious diversion of
slots,’’ they said.
Urging the current coordinator of
the amnesty programme to look into the issues of ex-militant leaders and their
foot followers in the Niger Delta region who were not documented, they said
that such neglect was what led to frequent vandalization of pipelines and crude
oil facilities in the region by various action groups in Ijaw and the rising
Urhobo Gbagbako group.
They also called for immediate
payment of all outstanding allowances to its leaders as well as train and
engage them with gainful employments to reform and create a conducive
environment for the nation.
Call security agencies to order
Meantime, the Egbema Voice, in a statement by Chief Wilfred
Elebiri and two others, said: “In as much as we are not opposed to the
anti-corruption crusade of this government, we sincerely and will
wholeheartedly condemn and fight any person or group of persons that will use
the state paraphernalia to intimidate and humiliate our High Chief or any Niger
Deltan.”
It continued: “We are making the
call because the man, High Chief Ekpemupolo has not done anything that warrants
such barbaric action. He is a leader in the Niger Delta with strong
followership and he is committed to the freedom, justice, fairness and equal
rights. Therefore, we cannot sit and watch while these group of people, all in
the name of political vengeance, bring the name of our brother and the people
of Niger Delta to disrepute.”
It said the actions of the
agents/agencies of the administration, so far, were merely to discredit any
person or persons perceived to be on the other side of the divide, adding, “these
actions are deliberately targeted at the peace-loving people of Niger Delta
whose resources these oligarchy has been feeding on all along.
Credit: Vanguard
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