Ex-militant leaders from the nine
states of the Niger Delta region have written a letter to President
Muhammadu Buhari, alerting him of issues in the region, particularly the
amnesty deal.
In the letter sent to the president on July 9, Thursday, copies of
which were made available to newsmen in Yenagoa, the ex-militant leaders
alerted the president to the growing suffering and disgraceful plight
of Amnesty beneficiaries in
Europe, America and South Africa, Leadership reports.
The concerned leaders led by one of
the frontline ex-militia leaders in Bayelsa state, Pastor
Reuben
Wilson, popularly known along the Creeks and waterways as General
Pastor, said, the alert sent to the president was to draw his attention
on the urgent need to address the issues in the region within the
Presidential Amnesty office.
They alleged that some aggrieved youths are threatening the existing
peace accord over the delay by the federal government in the payment of
allowances and
tuition fees to beneficiaries of the Amnesty deal within and outside the country.
“
The worst part of their situation is the unpredictability of when their nightmare will end while hunger and deprivation has put them in a very bad state of mind.
“Your Excellency, you will recall that this programme had within the last few years brought relative stability to our region and by extension this country.
“This we owe to the late President Yar’Adua who in his wisdom proclaimed Amnesty for ex-agitators and drew a plan of action towards ensuring lasting peace in the region through various training programmes,” the letter read.
According to the ex-militant leaders, series of complaints and
prayers have been sent to President Buhari on the matter but no response
and reports show that the delay in the payment is throwing up security
issues and dangerous disenchantment among the ex-militant youths.
The Amnesty programme was started by the late President Alhaji Umaru
Musa Yar’Adua. This led to the creation of the Presidential Amnesty
Office (PAO) based within the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. This
initiative
came against the background of tenuous security conditions and
instability which characterized the region. The various militant groups
had intensively engaged in series of kidnapping and abduction of
prominent citizens of the region, government officials and workers in
the oil and gas sector.
Report had surfaced in 2013 that the federal government was planning to terminate the amnesty programme by 2015.
An ex-militant leader
Ramsey Oyakemeagbegha had earlier called on the federal government to sustain the amnesty programme beyond 2015, stressing that it would enable government address the challenges and neglects that necessitated the amnesty.
