“No Guarantee Of Peace In The Niger Delta Without Settling Ex-Militants”

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The prospect for peace in the Niger Delta is farfetched except all those who surrendered arms under the amnesty programme are fully settled according to the terms of surrender, ex-militants under the aegis of Association of Third Phase Ex-militants have warned.

National chairman of the association, Comrade Wilson Ibena Rufus, told The Whistler in Abuja on Friday that the Presidential Amnesty Office has failed to integrate over 10, 000 ex-militants despite their surrendering over 18, 000 arms to the federal government.

“It is instructive to note that our members belong to the 3rd Phase Militants comprising of about 10, 000 ex-militants who embraced the amnesty offer by the government and pursuant to that surrendered about 18, 000 arms to the government and equally undertook to embrace and cooperate with the government in all aspects that there is peace in the Niger Delta region,” he said.

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He listed; disarmament allowances of N10million to each of the 1, 500 camps, payment of slot for each guns surrendered, housing allowance and proper documentation of the ex-militants of the third phase as part undertakings, which he said unfortunately has been ignored by the government.

Rufus saidwhile he and the leadership remain committed to peace and dialogue, they cannot guarantee the commitment of others as they feel betrayed and angry the way the Amnesty Office has treated them.

The ex-militant urged the federal government “to carry out an immediate probe of the operations of the Amnesty Office with the aim of prosecuting all those found culpable in the diversion and shortchanging all that is due to members of the third phase ex-militants.

“The federal government should as a matter of urgency call for an emergency meeting with the leadership of the Third Phase Ex-militants for the purpose of addressing their demands.”

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