The two-month old amnesty offered militants troubling the Creeks of the Niger Delta was yesterday declared a failure by leaders from the region who demanded for full implementation of the recommendations of the Ledum Mitee-Technical Committee.

At the eighth national roundtable for proactive laws and good governance organized by the faculty board of The Initiatives, a group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives, the leaders identified the illness of President Umaru Yar’Adua as a contributing factor to the setback which the amnesty programme had suffered.

Leading debate on the topic: ‘Post amnesty and challenges of national security,’ a member of the Ledum Mitee-Technical Committee, Tony Uranta, accused President Yar’Adua of ignoring sound advice to shift the amnesty take-off date.

According to him, some people argued and convinced the President against suggestions that the October 26 date was too short because of consultations and contacts required to ensure that the policy achieved its purposes.
“I want to say today that the amnesty was rushed by government. We learnt that it was rushed so that the U-17 World Cup would not be disrupted. That was why we asked for an extension but government said no,” he declared.

Uranta said, he was not surprised that months after the commencement of the amnesty, government had not been able to pay mere stipends promised the ex-militants who were becoming restive on the streets of Port Harcourt.
He warned of the existence of huge pile up of arms still in the creeks and cautioned the Federal Government to do the right things by publishing the White Paper of the Ledum Mitee-Technical Committee which, he said, proffered practical solutions to the problems that led to arms insurgence in the region.
“This is not the first offer of amnesty in the region. Remember that former President Olusegun Obasanjo offered Asari Dokubo amnesty but six months after, he was arrested for trial. Nobody can tell what will happen in the next few months. We expect government to back amnesty with law to remove the fear that after Yar’Adua, there will not be a reversal of policy,” he warned.

Another Ijaw leader, Madam Ann-Kio Briggs, was emphatic that the amnesty programme had failed because it had been 60 days of inactivity to reintegrate the ex-militants who surrendered their arms with the hope that government would live up to the promises of rehabilitation and re-integration.
The ways and manners government was going about that amnesty, she told the gathering in an angry tone, was painting Niger Delta people as bad citizens. She remarked, that soonest, another Tompolo, another Henry Okah and Boyloaf would emerge to continue the struggle to free the people from oil exploitation and under development.
Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana, described the amnesty as a deceit by the Yar’Adua administration when it was obvious that government was to lose the trial of Henry Okah who was slammed with 61-count charge before it was scaled down to three.

Falana argued that only the full implementation of the Mitee-committee recommendations would guarantee a lasting peace in the region because amnesty was designed to curtail allocation of oil blocs, oil contracts and under development in the Niger Delta.
“Today, amnesty is in danger because it was not well-conceived. Amnesty is grounded because of the illness of Mr. President as a result of violation of section 145 of the 1999 Constitution. We have a Vice President who has no power to implement amnesty. I called on the National Assembly to impress it on the President wherever he is to transmit a letter transferring power to the Vice President,” he demanded.

But former Minister of Petroleum Resources under the late General Sani Abacha, Atuekong Don Etiebet, heaped the blame over the trouble in the Niger Delta on a section of leaders of the region, accusing them of conspiring to frustrate the implementation of recommendations from an assessment tour of all oil producing communities, two months after he became oil minister.

Dean of the Faculty, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, in his welcome speech said the topic was chosen because no development could be achieved in a situation of anarchy, which, he stated, necessitated the offer of amnesty by government to bring back peace in the Niger Delta.
He added that the need to sustain the post-amnesty era for lasting peace led to the roundtable, with the hope that the outcome of discussion would be an overview of the gains and the strategy for the amnesty to deliver sustainable peace to the nation at large

SOURCE

kosovo:

the leaders identified the illness of President Umaru Yar’Adua as a contributing factor to the setback which the amnesty programme had suffered.

I knew it!. . . . . in Nigeria where everything is dependent on personalities and not institutions. . . . . waiting and watching.

Ibime:

I knew it!. . . . . in Nigeria where everything is dependent on personalities and not institutions. . . . . waiting and watching.

Precisely. With Solid institutions and meritocratic hierarchy it would not matter much that Yar Adua is unavailable.