Ex-militants issue FG ultimatum to return arms

Posted by admin Niger Delta Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Hundreds of Niger Delta ex-militants in Bomadi, Delta State on Thursday gave the Federal Government a 10-day ultimatum to return the arms taken from them.

The ex-militants stated that after several peaceful efforts to make the government see reasons why they should be included its the amnesty programme had failed, they were left with no option but to return to the creeks.

They accused the government through the Joint Military Task Force of deceiving them into submitting their arms, adding that several efforts to ‘’negotiate’’ with the Niger Delta Ministry had been fruitless.

While addressing the media, the ex-militants led by ‘General’ Para Ekiyes, Chairman of the state branch of the amnesty phase three displayed various certificates issued them by the army during their disarmament.

They had at different times barricaded the busy East-West road linking the South-West with Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River and Imo states to draw government’s attention to their plight.

But the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, had at various times said their protests were illegitimate, adding that they embraced the amnesty programme after the window had closed.

The ex-militants, who observed a one-minute silence in honour of the Late President Musa Yar’Adua, also demanded the immediate exit of all oil companies operating in the Niger Delta within 10 days or face the “consequences.”

They said, “President Goodluck Jonathan and Kinsley Kuku know what we can do because they are from here. We were with Kuku in the creeks during the heady days of militancy. He knows what we can do.”

-Punchwp_posts