N’Delta ex-militants threaten to destroy oil installations Some ex-militants from the Niger Delta on Monday threatened to blow up oil installations in the region if the Federal Government failed to include their names in its amnesty programme. The protesters stormed the headquarters of the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company in Benin, Edo State, to protest their alleged exclusion from the Presidential Amnesty Programme of the Federal Government. The youths, numbering over 50, reportedly pulled down one of the gates of the company located on Sapele Road in the state capital, carrying placards calling for their inclusion in the third phase of the programme. The post-amnesty deal programme had seen many youths in the Niger Delta, who had previously fought the government, being sent to foreign countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States of America, for training in several fields. The Monday protesters said that though they had no issue with the NPDC but that they decided to stage the protest at the company in order to draw the attention of the Federal Government to their demands. Spokesperson for the protesters, Gabriel Ogbudje, who accused the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, of alleged marginalisation, threatened to vandalise oil facilities if the government failed to include their names in the programme. Some of the leaders of the protesters reportedly held a closed-door meeting with the management of NPDC, where the company was said to have agreed to forward their demands to the Federal Government. Efforts to reach the management of NPDC on the matter proved abortive as one of its security personnel told our correspondent to return on Wednesday because he was not instructed to allow journalists into the premises of the company. However, a source in the NPDC disclosed under condition of anonymity that the protesters made the company a scapegoat to attract national attention, being an arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. “The youths are from Delta State. They were protesting against their exclusion from the Federal Government amnesty programme. Since the Federal Government of Nigeria owns NPDC, we became their scapegoat,” the source said. But the Head of Communications and Public Affairs of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in Abuja, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, dismissed the claim that some persons involved in the Niger Delta agitation were left out of the programme. Alabrah, who stated that the Federal Government had closed further inclusion into the programme in its first, second and third phase, added that anyone posing as an ex-militant subsequently was an “impostor.” On the threat by the protesters to vandalise oil facilities in the region, he said that the relevant security agencies had been placed on the alert and would not allow any breach of peace in the region, urging the youth to take advantage of other Federal Government schemes available to them. Alabrah said, “The truth of the matter is that anybody protesting at this time for inclusion is not a former militant because everybody that was involved in the Niger Delta agitation at that time has been captured and documented between 2009 and 2012. “If none of them was captured in the first or second or third phase of the amnesty programme, it means that they are impostors, claiming to be what they are not. “The Federal Government has closed further inclusion in the programme. These youths should look for further ways of engagement by the government at whatever level than claiming non-inclusion in this programme, which is not the only Federal Government programme in Nigeria.” Copyright PUNCH.All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH. Contact: editor@punchng ift.tt/1205TTc ift.tt/1r3W9gu [[Boost your social presence with NAIRALIKES nairalikes ]] #nigeria x #nairalikes #vanguardng
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 23:44:21 +0000
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