THE ex-militants, especially the third phase in Bayelsa State, which demonstrated early in the week over non-payment of their camp allowances and slots, have insisted they would not give up the fight unless their demands are met. The third phase ex-militants early in the week blocked the major roads of Yenagoa, destroying vehicles, looting shops and disrupting commercial activities in the major roads of the state capital.
President Goodluck Jonathan had last year approved 3,642 ex-militants for training in the amnesty programme.
Trouble started in the area when the Inter-Agency Taskforce headed by Air Vice Marshall Gbum, currently on a verification exercise of ex-militants in the state, reportedly notified them that 15 guns submitted by a militant camp would be entitled to one amnesty slot training.
The ex-militants rejected the controversial slot allocated to them, describing it as meager and inhuman.
In a statement issued in Yenagoa and signed by the ex-militants’ chairman and secretary, General Ebi John and General Izonpere Joel respectively, they threatened that they should not be blamed for whatever hostility that might erupt in the region.
The ex-militants appealed to President Jonathan and the Bayelsa State government to intervene in the matter before “it gets out of hands, as the issue may lead to fresh hostilities.”
The Bayelsa State government, however, has advised the youths to use lawful means in expressing their grievances as the Federal Government has a comprehensive amnesty programme for repentant ex-militants in the Niger Delta region.
The state government, in a statement issued by the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Deacon Marckson Fefegha, urged the general public to go about their normal business without fear, saying that government would protect the lives of the entire residents.
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