Steer clear of Presidential Amnesty Programme- Ex-militant warns
Ex-agitators leader in Akwa Ibom State, Nico Sintei has issued a stern warning to the Federal Government not to scrap the Niger Delta Presidential Amnesty Programme.
He said doing so would force the beneficiaries to return to the creeks.
Sintei, who aired his view while Speaking in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital warned that it would be fatal to scrap the programme as majority of the beneficiaries have come to depend on their monthly stipend for survival, which has occasioned unprecedented peace in the region.
He hailed the President Umaru Musa Y’Adua for its initiative to develop the programme, and wondered why the present administration is trying to tear a programme that has solved a big conundrum in the country apart.
He said, “The Federal government should not tamper with the Amnesty Programme if it really wants to continue to enjoy the oil production from the region. The programme is the only thing that has sustained the peace in the Niger Delta region, it helped to stop militancy and youth restiveness in the region, and attack on oil installations.
“And the only things the Niger Delta ex-agitators have benefitted from the programme is the Sixty-five thousand naira PAP monthly allowance. Also, some of us were sent to School, some have been trained in various skills. Is that too much?
“Why is that the paltry N65,000 allowance few youths from the region that lays the golden egg are receiving from the programme has become a problem? And as far as I am concerned It was the best thing that late President Yar’Adua did for Nigeria. Other solutions failed but PAP worked.
‘Let them understand that the amnesty programme can only stop when they stopped drilling oil from this region; the day we stop feeding this country. We were not told that the programme has expiry date, so it cannot be scrapped. Therefore I advise that they should let sleeping dogs lie.
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“The federal government should understand that those advising it to scrap the programme do not like the existing peace in the Niger Delta region, they don’t mean well for Nigeria.
“I am not saying these things because I am a beneficiary of the programme. But as a leader of ex-agitators in Akwa Ibom, I am saying that if they scrap the programme, they are simply asking them to go back to militancy or the creeks. And you can imagine what the consequences will be. ”
Today Boko Haram insurgents, bandits are killing innocent citizens, in Kaduna, all over the country, and the government has not done anything to put an end it, they are looking for how to stop Amnesty programme and add more problems into the system.
Sintei further faulted the government for not doing enough to provide basic social amenities for the region which happens to be the golden goose of the country.
“In those areas that we have oil fields, people the same source of water people use for bathing is the source they drink from. So I felt provoked when I read that there is a plot to scrap PAP. what are their reasons? Why can’t they focus on stopping the ceaseless killings by insurgents ?, He quizzed
