The ljaw Youth Council (IYC) has expressed displeasure with the federal government over its handling of the Amnesty programme for repentant militants in the Niger Delta region.
The spokesman of the IYC worldwide, Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe, stated this in an interview with Blueprint on divergent issues affecting the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
According to Him, the amnesty granted the former Niger Delta agitators had three faces which include disarmament, rehabilitation and reintegration of the ex-militants back to society.
He argued that while the agitators kept to their own side of the agreement which was disarmament, the federal government was yet to fulfill its part of the pact which involved rehabilitation and reintegration.
“We are insisting that the federal government should appointt an amnesty board that will be people driven. The purpose of establishing the amnesty board has not been achieved. We, the people of the Niger Delta have fulfilled our own part of the agreement which is disarmament.
“Today, there is an uninterrupted production of crude oil. The onus now lies on the federal government to do their own part but they have not done that. The federal government is into rehabilitation but for how long?
“Those who have been rehabilitated, should be reintegrated into the society. What are the multinational companies doing? They are supposed to engage some of these our boys who have been skilled. The amnesty programme also talks about construction of our coastal roads, have they done that,” he queried.
He said that to sustain the current peace in the oil producing region, the federal government should constitute substantive boards for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as well as the Amnesty Office and ensure that they are adequately funded.
