5,000 repentant Abia criminals demand amnesty



Abia State Governor Theodore Orji


House of Representatives on Monday said 5,000 repentant criminals in Abia State had petitioned the National Assembly, complaining of non-extension of amnesty to them.

The House said the youth, formerly involved in criminal acts, like kidnapping, voluntarily surrendered their arms in 2010 when the state government offered them amnesty.

Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, Chief Uzor Azubuike, stated this in Umuahia, Abia State on Monday, when members of the committee visited Governor Theodore Orji.

Azubuike said, “We are here because of petitions by over 5,000 Abia youths previously involved in criminal acts. They are complaining that they are not included in the amnesty programme of the Federal Government.

“If they are not listened to, it has the capacity to plunge the nation into crisis. There is danger of a backslide if youths abandoned their criminal acts and nothing is done to resettle them.

“It will be uncanny of the Federal Government to ignore them. The petition is a fallout of your action when you offered the youth amnesty to make them drop crime.”

He commended the governor’s ability to manage crime in the state, saying no other state government had done as much in security matters.

He also commended President Goodluck Jonathan for his youth empowerment programme, which culminated in the amnesty programme of the repentant militants.

Azubuike added, “So we are here today to listen to those petitions from youths from this state. Amnesty office has confirmed that they have the petitions. We are here to see how these youths can be captured in the programme.”

Orji noted that though the state was now peaceful, there was a time when kidnapping was rampant.

The governor said, “That time, Abia became the den of kidnappers; Aba became a ghost city. Every body ran away. I visited Abanta’s place [a member of the committee], there were nobody; they had all fled. I saw only his posters. That was the situation and we fought it. We fought them doggedly.

Meanwhile, while the meeting between the lawmakers and the governor went on, many youths marched to the streets, protesting that their request for amnesty had yet to be addressed by the Federal Government.