Fejiro Olivier
LAGOS NOVEMBER 25TH (URHOBOTODAY)-A group of Niger Delta Ex Militants has again accused Mr. Kingsley Kuku, Special Adviser on Niger Delta to President Goodluck Jonathan who also doubles as the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Committee of fraud and nepotism. In a statement sent to elombah.com, titled ‘Niger Delta Amnesty Programme and FG’s $1b expenditure
– The Truth of the Matter’, and signed by Diepreye Jackson Dikibo, their Publicity Secretary, the Niger Delta Ex Militants Leadership Forum, described the amnesty under Kuku as a deliberate fraud, carefully plotted embezzlement, elaborate concealment of the facts and outright mismanagement, thus killing the goodwill which the originator, President Musa Yaradua intended it for.
“The truth of the matter is that the Amnesty Programme itself was a laudable programme aimed at engaging those who took up arms against the Nigerian State. The problem however is with the management of the programme.
More than 90% of those who are currently benefiting from the training and educational programmes of the Presidential Amnesty Programme were never ex-militants involved in the agitation in the Niger Delta. Many of them had their names smuggled into the amnesty training document list due to the connivance of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta who also doubles as the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and some of the criminal elements amongst the militant leaders.”
According to them, those currently benefiting from the programs and flying around the world for trainings and educational engagement are not ex-militant. They noted that the real militants (McCoy) have been abandoned in their various communities where many of them now lead gangs that actively engage in the theft of crude oil and related acts of oil facility sabotage.
They challenged the amnesty office to produce those who they have sent to aviation training schools in South Africa, Dubai and UAE, especially those it bragged to be currently engaged at the Lufthansa aviation center in Germany. “Can the amnesty office state emphatically and provide evidence that those beneficiaries have ever been part of the armed agitation in the Niger Delta? And that for each and every one of these wrongly placed names, there exist one true militant who is currently stealing crude oil from our creeks?” they questioned
They dismissed the belief by Nigerians that those who are paid monthly for the amnesty are not all militants, as only few of them truly fought for the Niger Delta. They noted that for every N2 billion naira mismanaged by the Presidential Amnesty Office, Nigeria looses more than N40 billion worth of crude oil. They alleged that Kuku has boasted of his throwing money and favor to the right places and thus cannot be removed.
Source: Elombah