A group of ex-militants, under the aegis of Ifalibabou Revolution Movement (IRM), Bayelsa state, has faulted its exclusion from the amnesty programme.
The group recalled that its members numbering over 3,000 voluntarily surrendered their arms and withdrew from the creeks to embrace amnesty on December 30, 2010, to enable peace reign in the Niger Delta.
Coordinator of the group, Keithy Sese, fondly called Gen. Nomukeme, who spoke in Yenagoa with journalists, warned that they might be forced to return to the trenches over their non-inclusion in the amnesty programme.
He warned that the group would not be forced to return to the trenches in the face of their non-inclusion in the programme “because the president hails from the region.”
He, therefore, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to prevail on the Amnesty Office to document their member to enable them to have a sense of belonging having surrendered their arms and ammunition to embrace peace.
“No legitimate and responsible government could treat issues like peace process, Amnesty and invasion of communities by military forces with levity,” he said.
He said: “This is the fourth year since the group voluntarily participated in the disarmament process of the federal amnesty programme. None of our members have undergone re-orientation or re-integration of the programme. What then will be the place of these ex-agitators where government takes the option of abandoning us? Even my very self, Gen. Nomukeme, I have not been documented by the Amnesty Office in Abuja.”
