The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has cautioned the Federal Government against any plan to terminate the Presidential Amnesty Programme given the rumours that the government was scheduling to wind up the programme before the end of the Buhari administration.
PANDEF gave the warning at its extraordinary meeting held in Abuja on Thursday.
In a statement signed by the National Leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, the National Chairman, Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien and four others, PANDEF further warned that “considerations that the Presidential Amnesty programme could be scrapped due to a pipeline surveillance contract awarded to a private firm, are not only illogical but unacceptable.
“The Amnesty Programme was an intervention to promote peace and stability in the Niger Delta; thus, any attempt to prematurely end the programme would be detrimental to the peace and stability of the Niger Delta.Going forward, the Amnesty Programme should be extended to include the full re-integration of all beneficiaries.”
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The group joined all well-meaning Nigerians to express shock over the recent startling revelations of massive and systematic oil theft, commending the efforts of Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) and the youths of the Niger Delta, “who by their diligence and patriotic zeal, recently uncovered the mind-boggling mechanisms of those pillaging our oil resources.
“With the admission by the management of the NNPC, of the existence of the sophisticated syndicate, which for several decades, has continued to siphon the wealth of the country, PANDEF calls for an apology to the people of the Niger Delta, who have been falsely accused over the years.
“We the President as substantive Minister of Petroleum, to urgently take steps to launch a full-scale investigation into this matter, including constituting a Judicial Panel of Inquiry to ascertain the perpetrators of this outrageous thievery. There must be no sacred cows! This huge state of oil theft further re-enforces our call for True Federalism to afford our people better participation in the operations and management of the wealth in the Niger Delta.
“We further request the Federal Government to set up the mechanism for setting up modular refineries around the Niger Delta to bring an effective end to artisanal refining.”