‘General’ Keithy Sese, the leader of Ifalibabou Revolutionary Movement (IRM), a former militant group in the Niger Delta, has urged his followers still in the creeks to drop their arms and engage the Buhari administration through lawful channels.

In a statement he issued on Sunday in Yenagoa, Sese, also known as Nomukeme, said the Buhari administration is on course, adding that the group is convinced that the administration possessed the requisite toughness to muscle corruption and corrupt practices out of the nation.

He wrote: “An aftermath of a keen observation, the group is noting for the first time in the nation’s democratic experience a government that is disciplined and orderly.

“We are now experiencing where government directives are being complied with swiftly.

“The General Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s fight against corruption is commendable because we believe it possessed the requisite toughness to muscle corruption and corrupt practices out of our system.

“Complete cleansing is what is urgently expected in this area.

“The president’s choice of men in terms of appointment of Service Chiefs is equally appreciable. Your choice of Major General Tukur Buratai, a soldier to the core as Chief of Army Staff is perfect.

“For the first time in the war against Boko Haram, we have an indigene leading the war from the Nigerian side against the Islamic insurgents.”

While extending a hand of fellowship to the Buhari administration, Sese appealed to the president to right the wrong done to his group by the immediate past administration of President Good luck Jonathan which excluded them from the Amnesty deal.

He said that he and over ninety percent of his group of about 3,000 members were shut out in the Amnesty process by former Niger Delta militant leaders who were in charge of the amnesty programme.

His words: “The group’s offence is making third and second phase Amnesty a possibility. Some of our disenchanted former members are the army of youths responsible for the occasional breakdown of law and order at several instances in many parts of the Niger Delta in recent time.

“We plead with the government to re-integrate all former members of this group who were shut out in the federal government Amnesty process including the leader, Gen. Keithy Sese, aka Nomukeme.

“In other words, the amnesty programme should be reviewed in favour of real fighters who are yet to be integrated.

“Government can do well by upgrading the Amnesty programme from an avenue for the payment of monthly stipend and youths training to the original terms of the Amnesty understanding.

“Construction of a Niger Delta coastal road, for instance was a major factor in the Amnesty handout.”

The group also threw its weight behind the candidacy of Chief Timipre Sylva and his running mate in APC for the December 5 governorship election in Bayelsa.

It said: “Chief Timipre Sylva we know was a potent force behind the late President Yar’Adua’s declaration of Amnesty in the Niger Delta and the process in general.

“Also we have observed the APC in Bayelsa State has a clear cut agenda to develop the oil rich but, incredibly under-developed, utterly abandoned and ecologically devastated people of the Bayelsa coastline and connect them to the rest of the country.

“We believe in the ability of Chief Timipre Sylva to be able to massively engage our youths, especially from oil producing communities for sustainability and self reliance.”

•Photo shows Niger Delta militants in the heydays of the struggle.

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