President Goodluck Jonathan has approved
the inclusion of 3,642 ex- Niger Delta
militants in the Presidential Amnesty
Programme.
The new figure brings the total number of ex-
militants undergoing reformation under the
programme to 30,000.
It was learnt that the Special Adviser to the
President on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku,
had forwarded a memo to the President
seeking his approval for inclusion of more
ex-agitators in the programme.
The President was said to have approved
Kuku’s request on Thursday and also
instructed that the demobilisation exercise at
the Obubra camp, Cross River State should
commenced immediately.
Investigations revealed that the Amnesty
Office had been making moves to reopen the
Obubra camp.
It was learnt that the Federal Government
granted inclusion of youths from five
agitating groups in the programme.
They are 500 hundred youths were taken
from the Itsekiri National Youth Council, 100
from the group led by the late John Togo and
200 from Lato group in the Bakassi
Peninsula.
Others are groups of 200 and 842 from
communities severely impacted and polluted
by oil production activities in the region.
Youths from the Niger Delta, who were not
included in the programme, had been called
on Jonathan to include them in a third phase
of the programme.
Kuku, who doubles as the Chairman of the
Amnesty Programme, said there was no room
for a third phase of the programme.
Head of Media and Communications of the
Amnesty Office, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, he said
he was at a meeting when our correspondent
called him on the telephone for his reaction
to the story.
However, when our correspondent called him
an hour after, the repeated calls placed to his
mobile telephone line indicated that it was
either switched off or in an area outside
network coverage.
http://www.punchng.com/news/jonathan-approves-3642-ex-militants-inclusion-in-amnesty-programme/

Oh, not again!