The third phase beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme for Niger Delta ex-militants on Friday appealed to the Federal Government to complete the training of the remaining 8,000 delegates before winding up the programme.

The leadership of the ex-agitators who made the appeal during an advocacy visit to the Federated Correspondents Chapel in Yenagoa applauded the Interim Administrator of the Amnesty Office, Col Milland Dikio (rtd), for his new approach to training and empowerment.

Mr. Tonye Bobo, Interim President of Niger Delta Third Phase Ex-Militants Forum, said that they were impressed with Dikio’s policy of emphasizing that ex-agitators were self reliant rather than relying on the N65,000 monthly stipends.

“We of the third phase component of the Presidential Amnesty Programme have been neglected in the past, we have not received leadership and skills training after we accepted the amnesty offer by the federal government.

“We have also been marginalised and sidelined by the first phase ex-militants leaders who connived with officials to deprive us of the number of slots approved for us and we are excited that the Interim Administrator has seen our plight.

“At a recent interaction with us, Dikio unveiled a new policy to train the outstanding 8,000 beneficiaries. He told us that records at his disposal showed that 22,000 out of the 30,000 beneficiaries of the scheme have been trained with 8,000 remaining.

“We are therefore appealing and advocating that the leadership and skills training of the remaining 8,000 beneficiaries be completed before the amnesty programme is wound down, shutting down the programme without completing it could be counterproductive.

“The Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process for us has not been completed and that may be why the government has not gotten all the desired result and we do believe that the way to go is to conclude the process.

“We feel that rather than resort to street protests which creates the impression that we are still restive and hostile, we should adopt advocacy which is also a way of protest to drive home our point,” Bobo said.

He explained that the amnesty delegates in the third phase have complied with the new vision set out by Dikio and formed cluster groups to make the proposed training hitch-free and urged the government to support the Amnesty Office to achieve the set objectives.

The ex-militants called on the federal government to conduct verification exercise to check the possibility of fictitious ‘ghost names’ on the database adding that it was suspicious that the 30,000 beneficiaries captured in the database have remained static.

It will be recalled that Dikio had in a statement on February 27 said that the Amnesty Office would adopt a new model of training that emphasized entrepreneurship to make the remaining beneficiaries become self-reliant.

Dikio had in the statement issued by his Media Adviser Neotabase Egbe explained that going forward, contractors offering training would commit to employ potential apprentices and absorb them at the end of their apprenticeship.

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