Ten years after he sold the blueprint of the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme to former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the President of the Foundation for Peace and Non-Violence in Nigeria, Comrade Onengiye Erekosima has expressed deep concern over the rising cases of violence from gunmen in Rivers and other Niger Delta states.
Lamenting the state of insecurity in the Niger Delta Region, Comrade Erekosima said that the government got it wrong in the implementation of the Amnesty Programme which he had in mind when it was mooted a decade ago.
In an official statement issued in Lagos and signed by Onengiye Erekosima, the group stated that assassinations, cult clashes and indiscriminate killing of people were on the rise in the region.
He expressed misgivings on the approach being employed by the federal and state governments to deal with the situation.
Erekosima recalled that he was the champion of Amnesty, which he introduced to late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and regretted that his recommendations were doctored to suit the interest of those he said hijacked the programme.
Comrade Erekosima said that it was wrong to pay the ex-agitators on monthly basis without engaging in any type of work for the federal government.
He further said that in his own blue print, he had suggested that the ex-agitators should have been engaged in surveillance and intelligence gathering for the security authorities.
He lamented that able bodied young men were paid by the Presidential Amnesty Programme monthly for doing nothing, stating that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop.
He advised the federal government to implement his own blue print, which he said would abate incessant assassination, cultism, kidnapping and killing in the Niger Delta.
He stated that if the ex-agitators were engaged in intelligence, they would have been in a position to inform the authorities of the activities of so many criminals operating in the region.
He also lampooned against the idea of grouping the ex-agitators under their former warlords, stating that such would make them loyal to them and to be at their whims and caprices.
Comrade Erekosima said that although the Presidential Amnesty Programme had done well, they could do better if they adopt his original idea of the Amnesty.
He regretted that rather than give him credit for originating and championing the Amnesty Programme, they preferred to give it to those who were late advocates of the programme.
He appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to give him audience to discuss the security situation plaguing the nation, pointing out that security matters were not things that could be discussed on the pages of the newspapers.
The President said in the past he had made efforts to see former President Good luck Jonathan on the issue but could not succeed because those who make money from insecurity in the region prevented him from doing so.
Comrade Erekosima said with the transparent pedigree of President Buhari that he was optimistic that he would have an opportunity to discuss how insecurity can be curtailed both in the Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole.
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