Ex-militants leaders threaten Justice Ministry officials over sabotage of Amnesty Office

*Looted N60billion Amnesty training centre located in Bayelsa State

(Nigeria) Former militant leaders and ex-warlords from the nine States of the Niger Delta, have warned some officials of the Federal Ministry of Justice, to stop sabotaging the Presidential Amnesty Office over the probe of the looted N60billion Amnesty training centre located in Bayelsa State.

The ex-militant leaders also threatened that if the alleged sabotage of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, from filling proper defense against the ₦3.8billion suit plus damages filed by the accused 15 companies involved in the 2019 looting of amnesty training centre, was not stopped, they would declare them " Persona non grata across the nine states in the Niger Delta region and order citizen arrest in the region."

The ex-militant leaders, under the aegis of the Reintegrated Ex-Militants Forum, REF, in a statement  by its National Coordinator, former ‘General’ Tony Ebikalaide, claimed that alerts had been issued to all militant camps to be on the lookout across the entire Niger Delta region to ensure a citizen’s arrest of officials in the ministry fingered in the alleged plot to sabotage the PAP case for their personal benefits.

The group said: “Instead of the officials of the Federal Ministry of Justice to support the legal representation made by the Amnesty Office legal team against the suits filed by the accused companies in the tune of N3.8billion, plus 21 percent post-judgment fees, and special damages, which can go as high as N5billion to N8billion, they are busy sabotaging the Amnesty Office’s efforts in court by removing PAP legal adviser and other experienced legal officers from the amnesty office to stop the amnesty office from putting in proper representation in court.

“The 15 companies’ suits had different directors, and were filed separately on the same day, but all 15 cases were assigned to only two  judges of the FCT High court.”

The REF called on President Muhammadu Buhari and other officials in the Presidency to take note of the schemes by some officials within the Federal Ministry of Justice and the judiciary of alleged collusion with plaintiffs suing the Federal Government, “Thus these corrupt officials may sabotage cases in court worth billions of naira in favour of plaintiffs for their personal monetary gains.

“These judiciary staffers have taken our silence for weakness. Since the appointment of Col. Dikio (retd), the Niger Delta region has been the most peaceful region in the country. We are all witnesses to the lawlessness and anarchy going-on in the country, where many parts of northern Nigeria are not motorable. Can they try this nonsense of allegedly aiding legal fraud against this nation, and against their oath of office for monetary gains at the North-East Development Commission, NEDC, or any northern intervention agency?

“We are aware in the past that the sons​ and daughters of the Niger Delta region are the ones being used to truncate efforts of our region’s intervention agencies such as the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and PAP, and against the development of our region, including the empowerment of the people in the Niger Delta region, but this time around, we want to warn the Justice Ministry staff, particularly those who hail from the Niger Delta states to tread carefully as they are no longer welcome in Edo State or any other state across the Niger Delta region.”