Ex-Militants Offer To Help Military Uncover Oil Pipeline Bombers.

Leaders of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in Edo state say they are willing to work with the military to fish out those who are involved in the bombing of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region.

 

Mr Reuben Wilson spoke on behalf of the ex-militants under the aegis of Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative during a press briefing in Benin City the Edo state capital.

 

He said that the approval of the 2017 budget for the amnesty programme by President Muhammadu Buhari was a sign of his commitment to restore total peace to the Niger Delta region.

 

“We were there before embracing amnesty and we know every in and out of that area. That is why I said it here that we will work hand to hand with the security agencies.

 

“That place is not strange for us, it is (a place) where we have operated in those days before accepting amnesty.

 

“So we will go down and work hand in hand with security agencies if we are accepted. That is one thing. If the security agencies want us to work hand in hand with them, we will work and we know total peace will come back,” he said.

 

The Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh said the ex-militants have embraced the agriculture programme of the Federal Government.

 

He said: “Like the Peremabiri Rice Farm, am making arrangement with the Minister of Water Resources. That farm is not under the Ministry of Agriculture, it is under the Ministry of Water Resources.

 

“I met with the Minister and he is very happy and we are planning to go together even though I have the knowledge of the place so that we can use it as part of the training ground to train the ex-agitators so that they can have first-hand information about how rice is being farmed.”

Ignore Those Advocating Scrap Of Amnesty Programme, Ex Militant To Buhari

President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has been urged to ignore calls by some mischief makers to scrap the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

This call was made by former Niger Delta militants coming under the aegis of Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative, LPCDI.

The repentant militants spoke on the heels of calls by prominent businessman in the region, , and others questioning the rationale for sustenance of the programme.

They asserted that such call was in bad faith and utterly misguided.

National President of LPCDI, Pastor Reuben Wilson, who spoke on Wednesday, described Emami’s call on Buhari to scrap the amnesty programme as one which was premised on his “pathological hatred for the Ijaw nationality.”

He stressed that it was also based on his misconceived idea that the Ijaws were the major beneficiaries of the amnesty programme, but argued that the programme was for all Niger Delta ex-militants.

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