Urhobo Ex-Agitators Tackle Amnesty Boss, Says Programme Not For Ijaws Alone
LAGOS JANUARY 6TH (URHOBOTODAY)-The Interim Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr Milland Dikio, has been called upon to give fair treatment to all Niger Delta beneficiaries of the scheme irrespective of where they come from in the region.
Making the call while addressing journalists in Warri, Delta State, on Wednesday, the National Chairman of the PAP 3rd Phase Group, Onoriode Diyo, urged the Amnesty office to stop depriving Urhobo ex-agitators, who are the third phase leaders, from benefiting from its activities.
“Amnesty does not belong to only the Ijaw,” he stated while alleging that the PAP at its economic summit held on December 15, 2021 in Delta State, prevented the Urhobo ex-agitators from participating.
Diyo further alleged that the PAP had been consistently unfair to the Urhobo ex-agitators.
He said, “Urhobo ex-agitators in the third phase of the Presidential Amnesty Programme are over 600 persons and none was invited to the economic summit.
“Since 2009 when the Presidential Amnesty Programme was established by the Federal Government during the tenure of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, it has focused on the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of ex-militants in the Niger Delta region and the Urhobo ex-agitators in third phase have been demoralised in so many areas in the Amnesty office’s activities.
“The third phase of the amnesty programme has over 600 Urhobo ex-militants and they are being treated as foreigners and second class persons in the system.”
Punch