Boko Haram: Former Minister cautions ex-militants against reprisal attacks

Posted by admin Boko Haram, Latest Politics Thursday, February 9th, 2012

By JIMITOTA ONOYUME
PORT HARCOURT— FORMER Minister of Tourism, Alabo Graham- Douglas, has appealed to former militants in the Niger Delta to resist the urge to carry out reprisal attacks over killings of Christians by Boko Haram terrorists in the North.

Speaking yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at a peace concert organised by Association for Non-violence in the Niger Delta/Niger Delta Ex- agitators Forum, Graham-Douglas noted that the era of militancy in the region was over.

Appealing to the youths to take advantage of the Federal Government’s amnesty programme, he said they should ignore any call to take to violence.

He said: “As a father, I will tell you that you have passed the state of militancy. Nobody should tell you to go back to the trenches because of what some people are doing in the name of Boko Haram.”

Facilitator of the concert and president, Association for Non-violence in the Niger Delta, Mr Kennedy West, said he was elated by the peace that had returned to the region. He said youths took to militancy to protest the neglect of their areas by past administration and enjoined the Federal Government to create empowerment opportunities for youths in the region to have them productively engaged.

He also called on the Federal Government to establish more seaports in the region and appealed to members of the Boko Haram sect in the north and Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, to eschew violence.

-Vanguardwp_posts