The 90 ex-militants from Niger-Delta that were recently brought to Cape Town by the federal government to train in Oil and Gas Drilling have complained of poor treatments, saying that the Jonathan-led administration is not sincere with the running of the Niger-Delta Amnesty Programme.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the complaints border on the fact that they are only forced to learn carpentry, automobile mechanic, wielding, boiler making and bricklaying as against the original agreement they had with the federal government’s Amnesty office that they were coming to South Africa to be trained in Oil and Gas Drilling.
While 28 out of the 90 ex-militants had been brought back to Nigerian early this week, for raising the alarm over how they were being maltreated in South Africa by the officials of? Tudos International Limited, the company that the federal government arranged to be in charge of their trainings, the remaining 62 ex-militants decided against coming back to Nigeria with Mr Kingsley Kuku who arrived Murtala Mohammed International Airport on a South Africa-60 Lagos bound flight with the allegedly deported Niger-Deltans.
Meanwhile, the Spokesperson of the Amnesty office, Mr. Henry Ugbolue had denied the claims of the ex-militants that they were being threatened.
But the ex-militants, in a recent petition they sent to Mr. Kingsley Kuku, the Presidential Adviser on the Niger-Delta Amnesty Programme, indicated how they had been threatened with deportation by the officials of Tubos International Limited if they refused the carpentry, automobile mechanic, wielding, boiler making and bricklaying trainings that Northlink College was offering.
Apart from their complaint? that Tubos International Limited was forcing them to sign an extraordinarily stringent undertaking, putting them under conditions that other lodgers at the hotel are not subjected to, the ex-militants also said that they were often refused any right to create a representative committee amongst themselves.
They explained that when they got to Cape Town on March 14, 2012, two officials of the Tudos International Limited , Ms. Alexandra, a lawyer, and Mr. Robinson, the Tudos’ project manager told them their induction and orientation in Oil and Gas Drilling would begin the next day which was the 15th March, at Northlink College, a South African public Further Education and Training centre, but the management of the college openly stated that the school had nothing to do with Oil and Gas or intention to train them to become Oil and Gas Technicians.
“Mr. Robinson stated that we shall be deported to Nigeria, handed over to the Nigerian law enforcement agencies, our names blacklisted and all our rights as amnesty trainees shall be withdrawn. All 90 students were taken to Northlink College under duress and compelled against our wish to register for the above mentioned courses.” said the ex-militants, in the petition.