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| Niger-Delta ex-militants on arrival at the Murtala Murtala International Airport Lagos |
Some ex-militants have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sustain the amnesty programme beyond 2015.
The call came just as the Buhari-led
Federal Government ended the pipeline surveillance contracts given to
ethnic militias such as the Oodua Peoples’ Congress and ex-Niger-Delta
militants.
The amnesty programme, which was
initiated by the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua,
started in 2009 and was supposed to end this year.
Buhari had also stated that the
programme, which had gulped billions of dollars, would stop when due but
promised to continue to develop the Niger Delta.
However,
an ex-militant leader, Ramsey Oyakemeagbegha, while speaking with the
News Agency of Nigeria in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, said it
was not yet time to stop the amnesty programme.
Oyakemeagbegha, who benefitted from the
third phase of the amnesty programme, stressed the need for the
extension to enable the government address the challenges and the
neglect that necessitated the amnesty.
He said that ending the programme in 2015
would not benefit the ex-militants that embraced the amnesty programme
in the third phase in 2013.
He said, “We, in the third phase amnesty
programme, are also of the view that the programme should continue and
not stop in 2015 as scheduled. So, I urge the Federal Government to
review the schedule.
“The third phase came in not too long
ago. Even for those who started in the first phase there is not much on
the ground to engage them meaningfully.
“The communities are still largely
underdeveloped and most of the things that triggered militancy are not
attended to as expected.”
Oyakemeagbegha added that the people had yet to access potable water, good education and functional health facilities.
According to him, pollution occasioned by the oil industry still continues in addition to unemployment in the land.
“In the light of the above, making 2015
the end of the Presidential Amnesty Programme spells more trouble for
our region and the nation.”
Meanwhile, Buhari on Monday, ordered men
of the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Army to protect pipelines across
Lagos State and other strategic areas of the country.
However, a former Niger Delta militant, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, said he and his men had not been paid as promised.
Asari-Dokubo said Buhari must pay the
ex-militants because the surveillance contract was given to them
legitimately by the Federal Government led by former President Goodluck
Jonathan.
Asari-Dokubo explained that the contract,
which was given to them by Jonathan shortly before the last elections,
was for three months and it elapsed on June 15.
He said that the ex-minister of Petroleum
Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, did not sign for the payment of the
pipeline surveillance contract before she left office.
The pipeline protection project, which
cuts across Lagos, Ogun, Bayelsa, Ondo, Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta
States, was executed from March 15, 2015 to June 15.
Asari-Dokubo urged President Buhari to pay the contractors their money if he was truly committed to the rule of law.
He said, “If Buhari is law-abiding and if
his government respects the rule of law, the contractual obligations
will be followed. The contract was awarded to corporate entities by the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. We did not go in as individuals
and the corporate entities are regarded as individuals under the law.
No contract was awarded to any specific individual.”
When contacted on the telephone, the
National Coordinator of the OPC, Mr. Gani Adams, told our correspondent
that he and his men had not been paid by the Federal Government.
Adams said he was confident of getting his money.
“The contract was meant to last for three
months and it has now ended. We have not been paid but I am working on
getting the money. It was you people in PUNCH that kept on making noise
about the issue.
“Pipeline contract is not a big deal. We
in the OPC had been spending as much as N700m a year on our various
operations. How much was the pipeline contract?” he said.
Source: Punchng
