Dissatisfied with the federal government’s slow pace of effort at including them on the third phase of the amnesty programme, militants across the Edo, Delta, Akwa-Ibom and Bayselsa states have threatened to resume hostilities should government fail to keep faith with its promise.
The secretary general of Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), Tam Odogwu, in a protest letter to the National Assembly a copy of which was made available to LEADERSHIP in Benin said they have been unduly excluded from the amnesty deal without any justifiable reason.
They therefore appealed to the national assembly to come to their aid, saying, “It is unfortunate and worrisome that we have been excluded without any justifiable reason, as we have duly surrendered our arms and ammunitions of different categories to the joint task force, State Security Service (SSS) and the Nigeria police in the above states and were issued certificates to prove to our disarmament.
“It is on record that the series of peaceful protests, including the East/West Road and Lokoja/Abuja Expressway traffic blockades on September 7 and December 8, 2011, respectively, were unavoidably as a result of our exhaustive use of peaceful and legitimate means. Although, the protests informed the meeting between leadership of the group and the top brass of the nation’s security agencies, including the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Chief of Defence Staff on December 20, 2011.
?“At the end of the crucial meeting, we were only persuaded to go home and plead with our followers to give the federal government little time to clear some gray areas after which our grievances would be properly addressed, but since then, no concrete steps have been taken by the federal government.”
It further added: “We are almost tempted to demand for our guns and mobilise and back to the creeks due to the current physical and psychological torture we have been made to undergo, we therefore call on the national assembly to appeal to Mr. President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to direct the special adviser and chairman of the amnesty programme to order the immediate inclusion of members of the Niger Delta Development Ex-militants (Third Phase).”