/Delta ex-militant protest in Abuja over continued exclusion from Amnesty Programme

EX-militants in the Niger Delta who said they were yet to be captured under the third phase of the amnesty programme of the Federal Government, on Saturday, stormed Abuja to protest their continued exclusion.

The former militants who were represented by their leaders from various states of the region threw more lights into why the region remained fragile.

They‎ alleged that the continued ill-treatments being meted to the former agitators under the aegis of Third Phase ex-militants by the amnesty office were fuelling tension in the region.

Speaking on behalf of the militants, ‎Comrade Wisdom Ibena Rufus, noted that members of the phase who are about 10, 000 and who embraced amnesty and surrendered about 18, 000 arms to government during the administration of late President Musa Yar’Adua were yet to be properly documented and given their entitlements.

He disclosed that the government had undertaken to pay slots for each guns surrendered, apart from disarmament and‎ housing allowances but lamented that the amnesty office failed to honour the commitments as it was yet to kick-start the third phase of the amnesty programme.

Rufus urged the government to carry out an immediate probe of the operations of the amnesty office with the aim of prosecuting all those culpable in the alleged diversion and short-changing of the members of the Third Phase.