Ex-militants To FG: Relocate Oil Facilities From N’Delta Before Ending Amnesty Programme Or…

Ex-militant leader and chairman, Amnesty Phase 11 in Delta State, Amb. (Chief) Kingsley Muturu has warned the Federal Government to shelved the reported plans to terminate the Presidential Amnesty Programme in 2018, saying that the consequences of such moves would be counter productive to the relative peace in the Niger Delta region.

Muturu however says the federal government should relocate oil facilities from the Niger Delta before such a provocative move.

The Chairman, Amnesty Phase 11 in Delta State, who explained ex-militants’ opposition to the planned termination, said “the ideal of peace and deserved development of the Niger Delta for which Late President Musa Umar Yar’Adua laudably offered and implemented the Amnesty programme remain far from being achieved” would be eroded with plans.

“With the groundswell of anger in the land, we wish to humbly serve notice that we cannot guarantee the safety of oil installations in the Niger Delta”, Muturu warns.

“Accordingly, before terminating the PAP, we advise the Federal Government to kindly relocate all oil facilities from the Niger Delta region to another safer haven.

“This advice is intended to avert consequences of sure military deployment by the FG which unfortunately believes more in thrust of physical force to spill innocent blood of people of the oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta”.

“Instead of leveraging on relative peace in the Niger Delta from leadership interventions for development and reintegration of ex-militants with jobs, Muturu alleged that the amnesty programme suffered declining fortunes under Gen Paul Boroh who was arm-twisted by agents of the FG to the detriment of Niger Deltans.

“With recent denials of Niger Deltans in educational programmes of the PAP, is the FG not orchestrating the denial of Niger Deltans from the prospect of being in the commanding heights of political and economic decision making in the Nigerian nation that has so held us down?”, Muturu queried.

“It is disheartening that even those interested in the Agricultural trainings and whose trainings were supposed to last longer were reduced to 2-week trainings or less. The implication is that they were not trained at all while the vendors (contractors) of such programmes smile to the banks with huge amounts”, he lamented.

Muturu further alleged that politicians and bad advisers were preventing Gen Boroh from meeting with leaders of the militants for which the programme was designed so they may offer suggestions for continuing improvement.

He said budgetary constraints disabled payment of a housing allowance of N150, 000.00 per year paid once under Kingsley Kuku as Coordinator of the PAP.

“Several militants that we have engaged and who are undecided as yet to embrace amnesty for the good of the nation are turning around to mock us over the FG lacklustre disposition to the PAP.

“We had thought that an amnesty programme that is progressively better sponsored, not terminated, would take the wind off the sail of those still bent on vandalism as a means of agitation”.

“The planned termination of the Amnesty Programme gives the lie to the impression the current FG had given that it needs peace upon which it may execute its avowed development agenda for the Niger Delta”, Muturu said.

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