The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ex-Niger Delta Militants

  • Ex-militants protest non-payment of allowances, school fees

    Ex-militants protest non-payment of allowances, school fees

    The ex-Niger Delta militants studying in Benson Idahosa University (BIU) under the federal government amnesty programme has protested against the non-payment of their tuition fees, areas and monthly stipends for the last seven months.

    The students, who gave the federal government 72-hour ultimatum to address the issue converged Monday at the Edo state secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to express their grievances.

    One of the protesters, Destiny Pereware who lamented the students suffering as a result of the non-payment of the allowances called on President Muhammed Buhari to come to their aid and increase fund for the programme.

    “We have been suffering, starving and being in hunger for the past seven months. We have come to tell the world that the amnesty students of the Benson Idahosa University have not been paid for seven months. That our monthly allowances and tuition fees should be paid. We don’t want to go back to our old ways. We have renounced crimes, we have renounced hostilities, we are peace-loving Niger Deltans, and we are non-violent advocates.

    “So we want you to tell the world that we are suffering and President Muhammed Buhari should ensure that the amnesty programme is well funded and our money should be paid to us.  That is why we have come to the NUJ to pass this message across to the world”, he said.

    Another protester, Igboga Izaic 400-level Department of Mass communication, Benson Idahosa University demanded for a reason for the delay of the payments.

    He said: “Initially when we heard students from other schools had been paid, we called the Special Assistant to the President on Amnesty, and he told us to disregard the information that it is not true, but we later found out that the information is true because they have paid ex-militants in other schools while the ex-militants at Benson Idahosa university are not paid.

    “So we want them to give us the reason why we have not been paid if other schools have been paid. If we don’t get this issue addressed within 72 hours, we don’t want to go back to our old ways, and when we say old ways, they understand what we mean by that.”

     

  • Boko Haram: Niger Delta ex-militant leaders hail Buhari

    Boko Haram: Niger Delta ex-militant leaders hail Buhari

    • Seek presidential intervention on ex-militants’ plight

    Ex-militant leaders from the Niger Delta region, yesterday, described President Muhammadu Buhari as a relentless warrior following his victory over the Boko Haram insurgents.

    Leaders of Second Phase Presidential Amnesty Programme in a joint statement issued in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, commended Buhari for effectively taking over the notorious Sambisa Forest and ending terror regime of Boko Haram in the country.

    The National Chairman of the Second Phase, Mr Sylvester Tambo and the leaders of the group in Bayelsa, Mr Salvation Rufus and Delta State, Mr Muturu Kingsley, insisted that the President’s relentless efforts and consistent approach brought the unholy activities of the terrorist group in the North East to an end.

    But the ex-warlords appealed to Buhari to quickly resolve issues affecting the Niger Delta ex-militants including their arrears of unpaid stipends.

    They, however, blamed the travails of the ex-militants on the alleged refusal of the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, to release N30bn earmarked for the payment.

    They urged the minister to play a leadership role and encourage the youths from the region by quickly releasing the money for their stipends to complement the peace efforts of the President.

    The ex-militant leaders said: “We are commending President Muhammadu Buhari for his relentless approach in bringing the unholy activities of the Boko Haram to an end in the North East.

    “But we are appealing to the President to prevail on the Minister of Finance to release the N30bn earmarked for the payment of stipends to beneficiaries of the amnesty programme.

    “The inability to release funds to the Amnesty Office by the Finance Minister has greatly hampered effective payment of their salaries by the programme Coordinator, Brigadier Paul Boroh (retd).

    “We are also appealing to the Minister of Finance to play a leadership role and encourage the youths as President Buhari is doing. She should stop discouraging the youths from the Niger Delta region”.

    They noted that the ex-militants needed all their money to enable their children and wards return to school following the resumption of schools across the country.

    “We urge the minister of finance to do the needful by settling all outstanding debts to enable Paul Boroh function properly”, they said.

    The leaders also hinted that a crucial general meeting 125 ex-militant leader representing 6,600 ex-militants captured in the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) would hold at Bomadi, Delta State, on Saturday next week.

    The meeting would discuss knotty issues affecting the Niger Delta region especially the future of the amnesty programme and the region’s search for permanent peace.

    They urged all the leaders to attend the meeting en masse adding that important decisions would be taken at the gathering.

  • FG offsets salary arrears of ex-militants

    The Federal Government has paid two out of four months outstanding stipends owed former Niger Delta militants under the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

    The leader of the 3rd phase of the amnesty programme, Mr. Ramsey Mukoro told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday that some former agitators had received two out of four months’ salary backlog.

    “The Amnesty Office has started paying but my third phase people have yet to get alerts, we are hoping that we in the third phase will benefit as well.

    “It has really been difficult for us and we spend Christmas and New Year on empty stomach, they should try and make it go round,’’ Mukoro said.

    The Liaison Officer at the Bayelsa Office of the Presidential Amnesty Office, Mr. Piriye Kiyaramo told NAN that the Amnesty office began the payment after the new year holidays.

    “The office commenced payment of the outstanding stipends this week after the new year, precisely on Wednesday.

    “The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig.- Gen. Paul Boroh (rtd) is concerned about the welfare of beneficiaries in the programme.

    “He would stop at nothing until a sustainable reintegration of the ex-agitators into the society with sustainable source of livelihood is achieved,’’ he said in a statement.

  • Presidency to militants: Embrace amnesty programme

    The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Brig- Gen. Paul Boroh (retd), on Friday appealed to the Niger Delta Avengers and other militant groups in the region to leave the creeks and enlist in the amnesty programme for a better future.

    He made the appeal while welcoming four ex-militants from the region who were successfully trained in electrical transformer repairs, maintenance and establishment by a vendor to the amnesty office, Brainbox Matrix Services Limited.

    According to him, the intention of President Muhammadu Buhari was to stabilize the Niger Delta region through human capacity building and infrastructural development.

    He said: “First, I appreciate the President for sustaining this programme because if not for his giving us go ahead to continue training the ex-agitators, it would have been difficult for us to achieve this great feat today.

    “You can imagine a group of persons who have transformed from militancy to be electrical engineers, obviously I’m very proud of it because it has been a success story. And my appreciation goes to Mr. President for his determination and commitment to stabilizing the Niger Delta region through human capacity building as well as infrastructural development.

    “In this case, it is two in one, the ex-agitators, 23 of them have developed their human capacity in terms of skills acquisition in transformer maintenance and establishment. This has transformed these persons from whom they were to the present as well as the refurbishment of transformer which will now supply power to the environment where it is deployed.

    “For those still in the creeks, this is a challenge. It is an opening, a wider platform for them to emulate and embrace so that their capacity will also be developed, instead of wasting the human resource elements in them. This means opportunities are open to them whether they are agitators or not.”

     

  • 22 ex-militants qualify as aircraft engineers

    The Presidential Amnesty Office on Friday said 22 beneficiaries of its foreign education programme had graduated as Aircraft Maintenance Engineers and had returned to the country.

    The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta,  Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh, disclosed this during a chat with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

    He said the beneficiaries were trained at the Royal Jordanian Air Academy and were equipped with EASA licence on return, adding that without the licence, they would not be useful in the aviation industry.

    Boroh, who doubles as the Coordinator of Presidential Amnesty Programme, said the licence made the beneficiaries certified aircraft maintenance professionals needed in modern airline operation.

    “Worldwide aircraft maintenance business is enormous, and expanding with the passage of time,” Boroh told NAN.

    “Approximately 500, 000 passenger and cargo aircrafts are currently in service worldwide.

    “Moreover, about four million smaller private aircrafts are being used for business or pleasure. Thus, aviation is an ever-expanding field with modernization of equipment on new aircraft.

    “Therefore, the requirements of aircraft engineers and aircraft mechanics to work on a permanent basis as an employee of an airline will always rise with ever increasing expansion of aviation industry.”

  • Ex-Niger Delta militants protest unpaid stipends

    Travelers were held up for hours at the Mbiama axis of the East-West Road, Rivers State, on Monday, following a protest by ex-militant leaders over unpaid five- month stipends by the Amnesty Office.

    The Nation gathered that the angry ex-agitators seized the busy road at about 6:00am in a protest that trapped commuters and drivers heading for Port Harcourt, Rivers and Warri in Delta State.

    The ex-agitators displayed placards with inscriptions such as “Buhari, pay us our stipends,” “Don’t politicize Niger Delta Amnesty,” and “Boroh pay us our money.”

    They chanted solidarity songs and demanded that the stipends should be paid with immediate effect.

    It was learnt that heavily armed soldiers and other security operatives took strategic positions at the scene of the protest to forestall any breakdown of law and order.

    Our correspondent learnt that it took the intervention of the Commander, Operation Delta Safe (OPS), Rear Admiral Joseph Okojie, for the former agitators to open the road to traffic.

    Okojie urged the ex-militants to be patient with authorities and assured them that their stipends would be paid.

    Reacting to the protest, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Brig-Gen. Paul Boroh (rtd), told the ex-agitators that their delayed stipends would be paid this week.

    Boroh in a statement issued by the Bayelsa State Liaison Officer, PAP, Mr. Piriye Kiyaramo, lamented the plight of the ex-agitators over the delayed stipends.

    He reiterated the federal government’s commitment to re-engineering the amnesty programme for the benefits of the ex-militants.

     

  • Why Nigerians must support Army

    Why Nigerians must support Army

    I just watched the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Tukur Buratai on Television after he visited troops in Geidam Community of Yobe State, as a result of Wednesday’s attack by Boko Haram militants who over-ran the military.

    Tn the attack, the insurgents killed 3 soldiers, carted away many weapons and ammunition abandoned by the military on the run and looted mostly food and petroleum products from the popular Wednesday market.

    I was particularly touched by the honesty of General Buratai who was obviously angry with the troops who had run away from Geidam town.

    In his words, the General said “How can you allow these criminals over-run you? How can you run away from this rag-tag and untrained criminals? You allowed them to operate here for 12hours unchallenged. You refused to come back until they withdrew.”

    On the surface, the words of COAS Buratai are very hurtful to the image of the Nigerian Army but this is the painful reality today.

    The Nigerian Army seems to be overwhelmed and demoralized.

    The image of the Nigerian Army has suffered so much damages in the eyes of Nigerians and the international community mainly because of the way they have handled the war against Boko Haram in the past 3years.

    These insurgents have repeatedly, for over 2years, embarked upon massive propaganda using social media to demonize the Nigerian Army.

    They have through so many online propaganda and campaigns portrayed our army as a weak and a cowardly army that cannot stand to fight.

    Many online media and personalities helped the insurgents to achieve their propaganda campaigns either intentionally or otherwise.

    It is important for us to know that all wars are fought both on ground, air, sea, land and in the minds of all parties involved in the war and most importantly in the psyche of the citizens. To win this war against Boko Haram, we must conquer the minds of Boko Haram with fear, win over our allies and friends by convincing them our army is capable and reliable and also boost the confidence of our troops through citizenry support since the morale of our troops are boosted when they know the citizens of their country are solidly behind them.

    The Nigerian Army and our other security agencies are our last line of defense against these barbarians since we cannot defend ourselves against their satanic attacks. If not for the efforts of the Nigerian Military and our other security agencies, these barbarians would have taken over the entire nation, enforced their barbaric and misguided religious tenets on all of us, restricted us to their false Sambisa sharia law system, forced our Sisters into sex slavery like they have done to the Chibok Girls and make us live in perpetual fear of terror.

    [quote font_size=”18″ font_style=”italic” bgcolor=”#000000″ bcolor=”#e2e2e2″]We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.”  ― Winston S. Churchill[/quote]

    If not for the Nigerian Army and other security agencies, many Muslims and Christians across our country would not be able to go to the mosque on Fridays or the church on Sundays.

    Boko Haram seeks to destroy Christianity and Islam and do not wish any of us well, Nigerians, irrespective of religious consideration, party affiliation and tribal affinity, must realize that Boko Haram are our common enemies and not just the Nigerian Army’s.

    The Army means well and are doing their very best to protect us all despite the overwhelming odds, they need our support at all times.

    This was what the opposition party in the days of President Goodluck Jonathan was admonished with but they refused to listen. They politicized everything.

    Sadly, they politicized the attempt by the former president to list Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO); they politicized the procurement of arms to prosecute the war; they politicized appointments of service chiefs; they politicized State of Emergency in the North East; they politicized Chibok and turned it into a campaign tool against Jonathan.

    The PDP-led Federal Government and the Nigerian Army, for inexplicable reasons, chose to see issues as an appendage of the PDP rather than the federal government.

    Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, now governor of Kaduna State and many leading APC chieftains then referred to the Nigerian army as Jonathan’s army. They politicized everything as regards the fight against the deadly sect.

    At some point in time, their presidential candidate now President Muhammadu Buhari called an attack against Boko haram an attack against Northern Nigeria.

    If the political class and all Nigerians had supported the then Federal Government and our security agencies in the fight against Boko Haram, may be we would have long won the war.

    The politicization of the war against Boko Haram caused more damage than good on the whole nation. Those who saw the war against Boko Haram as an avenue for them to keep scoring needless and cheap political points in the North, sabotaged the efforts of our security agencies.

    They got the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to issue endless press releases kicking against the ban on Boko Haram and the plan of the then FG to list Boko Haram as an FTO which was needed to get arms from our allies to effectively prosecute the war.

    And finally, when Boko Haram was listed as an FTO, they began another campaign against the army saying former Chief of Army staff, Lieutenant General Ihejirika was also a sponsor of Boko Haram and was the one supplying arms to Boko Haram on the orders of former president Jonathan.

    Their allegations were so scary and consistent that our allies became skeptical of supplying us with arms, and the United States and Israel refused selling arms to us to fight the deadly sect.

    We had to turn to Russia for help. As if that was not enough, the former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako even did the unbelievable, accusing the FG of genocide against Northern Nigeria and suggested that federal troops were the ones dropping arms for Boko Haram with helicopters.

    Furthermore, it was Mallam El-Rufai that built a propaganda foundation which suggested that former President Jonathan was the one sponsoring Boko Haram against the North.

    He also tried to bring in the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Ex-Niger Delta Militants and others as possible sponsors of the terrorist group. El-rufai ensured he poisoned the minds of young people from the North and many of his followers on social media against the then president Jonathan by maintaining this lie. He further justified this lie when he spoke at Chatham House by presenting a table to justify his propaganda theory.

    The questions all Nigerians must now begin to ask those who refused to support the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan and our security agencies in their fight against Boko Haram then and who are suddenly supporting the Federal Government and the army now is, what has changed? Is Goodluck Jonathan still the one sponsoring Boko Haram with the help of his Niger Delta ex-militants? Is CAN still the one sponsoring Boko Haram? Explanations were offered to APC on why they should see the battle against the terrorists as a national issue rather than treated as a political one just for parochial and mundane reasons, that where national security is concerned, we must not play politics with it but they did not listen.

    They threw caution to the wind and were playing loudly to the gallery. Now see where that has gotten us to, in just 120 days of president Buhari taking over, the deadly group has killed more than 1,300 Nigerians and bombed Abuja twice.

    The message here is this, the enemy is Boko Haram, not the Federal Government, not president Buhari, and definitely not our ever caring Nigerian Army and the security agencies who daily spend their days in the heat and their nights in the cold while the rest of us spend times with families in the comfort of our homes.

    The military deserves our respect and support as they remain in the forefront in the fight against these barbarians.

     

    Deji Adeyanju is a Member of the PDP

    He writes from Abuja and can be contacted:

    Twitter: @adeyanjudeji

    Email: dejiadeyanju_1979@yahoo.co.uk

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