Justice Aliya Nganjiwa of the Federal High Court, Yenagoa, has appealed to ex-militants to reach out to the Niger Delta Avengers on the need to cease their attacks on oil installations.

Nganjiwa made the appeal on Wednesday at the resumed hearing of the ex-militants’ case in Yenagoa.

He commended the ex-militants for exploring the legal option to resolve their grievances against the Amnesty Office, and urged those behind the recent attacks to emulate them.

Nganjiwa appealed to the applicants to “help the Federal Government talk to Niger Delta Avengers to desist from bombing oil pipelines,” adding: “Tell them to be patient with the Federal Government as their recent actions are not the best.”

Earlier, Mr K.O Sariki, counsel to the aggrieved ex-militants, had informed the court of their preparedness for out-of-court settlement with the defendants.

The ex-militants in their suit are praying the court to compel the Chairman of the Amnesty Implementation Committee, retired Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh, to include them in the ongoing amnesty programme.

The applicants include Asenekir Oyile, Angiama-Owei Oyindoubra, John Government, John Sawyer, Trydy Okpeke, Dollar Motor, Elebi Ayowei and Bobra Angese. The others are Henry Gomeromo, Bobra Angese and Ekerebi Ombe.

The applicants in their suit claimed that the Amnesty Committee erred by refusing to include them in the ongoing amnesty programme.

They claimed that they had series of resolutions from meetings with past and present National Security Advisers but they were still excluded from the programme.

The litigants said that they had accepted amnesty under the third phase after they surrendered their weapons to the Federal Government through the Amnesty Office in 2011 under the peace initiative of the Federal Government.

They are also seeking an order of the court to compel the Amnesty Committee to pay each of them N7 million as general damages and one million naira each representing cost of litigation.

Before adjourning hearing in the suit till June 29, Nganjiwa advised the youths to be peace ambassadors.

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