Ex militants on the rampage in Bayelsa

Posted by admin Bayelsa, Headlines, Niger Delta, State News Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

NO fewer than 10 vehicles had their windscreens smashed and one car razed in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Tuesday, as over 400 ex-militants of the “Third Phase Amnesty” protested over a controversy on the proposed slots to be allocated to them.

The former militants also looted shops on Otiotio road and Mbiama-Yenagoa road at Yenezuegene axis of the state capital, as an unidentified hawker from the Hausa ethnic stock had his back matcheted by the rampaging youths.

Some business outfits in the area hurriedly locked up for fear of being attacked by the ex-militants on the rampage.

It will be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan, last year, approved training under amnesty programme for 3,642 ex-militants.

Checks by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that the protest, which started around 9.00 a.m, lasted almost three hours, causing traffic gridlock on the roads.

The intervention of operatives of the Joint Military Taskforce (JTF), anti-riot policemen, state security outfit and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), helped put the situation under control.

Spokesman of JTF, Lieutenant-Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, confirmed that the protest had been put under control, adding that the security outfit had no hand in the protest.

When the Nigerian Tribune visited the scene of the incident, broken bottles and glasses littered the road, including the burnt and smashed vehicles belonging to innocent persons.

Trouble started when the inter-agency taskforce headed by Air Vice Marshal Gbum, currently on a verification exercise of ex-militants in the state, reportedly notified them that 15 guns submitted by a militant camp would be entitled to one amnesty slot training.

The ex-militants rejected the controversial slot allocated to them, describing it as meagre and inhuman, just as they called for an increase in their monthly allowance.

In a reaction, spokesman of the Presidential Amnesty Office, Daniel Alabrah, condemned the protest, noting that the destruction of the vehicles was misplaced.

Efforts to reach the head of the inter-agency security taskforce failed, as his mobile phone was switched off.

Via Tribunewp_posts