Ijaw youths oppose Buhari's December deadline for Amnesty Programme
(Nigeria) The Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, has
expressed concerns over the position of President
Muhammadu Buhari that the amnesty programme for Niger Delta former militants will terminate in December 2015.
According to a statement by Mr Eric Omare, Spokesman
of IYC in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Sunday, there is need to review
the terminal date to accommodate those who are yet to complete the scheme.
``President Muhammadu Buhari in his speech said that the
amnesty programme for ex-Niger Delta agitators would end by December 2015. The IYC appreciates the fact that the amnesty programme
cannot continue forever and therefore must have a terminal date.
``However, the questions on the lips of beneficiaries and
stakeholders in the Niger Delta region are: what would happen to those that
have not been trained at as December 2015. And what about those still undergoing training or have not
completed their training?"
Omare said that the termination of the programme would throw
up challenges for beneficiaries of the programme who were still undergoing
training and were at different level of training.
The IYC spokesman said the group expected the Federal
Government to allay fears of beneficiaries who were in different parts of the
world and were worried that their trainings might be affected if the programme
was terminated in December 2015.
He added that the case of substantial number of ex-agitators
who had not been trained was even more worrisome.
He, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government to address
challenges before the programme was terminated.
The youths applauded the planned streamlining of policies to
rapidly develop the region.
Omare said ``we, however, wish to advice that any effort
toward restructuring developmental institutions and projects should have the
input of the people of the region at the heart of the process.
IYC had expected President Buhari to address issues such as
cleaning up of the Niger Delta environment, implementation of the UNEP report
on Ogoni, he said.
He added that also left out were the menace of oil theft
which had greatly contributed to environmental degradation in the Niger Delta
region, which he promised to tackle during the presidential campaigns in his
inaugural address.
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