The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has pledged support for the Presidential Amnesty Programme in ensuring proper rehabilitation and reintegration of the ex-agitators in the Niger Delta Region towards achieving a safe and secured maritime industry and the economy as a whole.

The Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, gave this assurance when the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (rtd.), and his team paid a courtesy visit to the Head Office of the Agency in Lagos. He stated that NIMASA and the Amnesty programme are strategic partners in ensuring lasting peace in the Niger Delta region.

While noting that the Presidential Amnesty programme and NIMASA are jointly in pursuit of maritime security within the Niger Delta belt, without which shipping activities cannot thrive; the DG stated that the core mandate of both government bodies is to ensure that the young men and women who were agitating are rehabilitated into the society and reintegrated as a way of ensuring that we have relative security within that region.

According to him, “you are contributing to the growth of our economy by ensuring that there is peace in the Niger Delta; when there is peace in the Niger Delta, we will increase oil production, we will contribute more revenue to the purse and we can do more development efforts.

“For us, working in maritime means that we will support the oil and gas industry, which is for now the mainstay of our economy; we have the capacity to diversify, but we need the resources from oil and gas to diversify into other areas, that is why we need peace in the Niger Delta, so we truly have common mandate in many areas. I truly welcome the idea of a strategic partnership and collaborative efforts in many directions,” the DG said.

Dr. Peterside also said that the Agency will set up a special desk to look at the young men and women in the amnesty programme with a view to creating opportunities for them to apply the skills they acquired in the maritime industry.

Earlier in his address, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh (rtd.) called for a collaborative effort in the resettlement and reintegration of the ex-agitators in the Niger Delta Region, noting that it will foster the growth and development of the economy.

He stated that a number of them have gone through various courses relating to the maritime industry and appealed to the Agency to assist in engaging them, so that they can reintegrate into the society and lead lives.

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