Former militants are to be paid their five-month arrears, according to the Presidential Amnesty Office.

Its Media Consultant, Owei Lakemfa, told The Guardian yesterday that: “We paid up till March before the Sallah holidays but they (ex-agitators) couldn’t get the alerts because of the holidays. They have started receiving the bank alerts now”.

He also informed that the co-coordinator of the amnesty programme and Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (rtd), had in the past weeks been involved in talks wit a view to ending vandalism of oil installations in the oil-rich region.

Erstwhile militants had last Monday reportedly blocked the East-West highway protesting against the non-payment of their stipends.