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FG rules out termination of amnesty scheme for militants

By Ann Godwin, Port Harcourt
02 January 2019   |   4:04 am
The presidency has said it would continue the amnesty programme for militants in the Niger Delta, stating that the initiative would eradicate criminality in the oil-rich region.

Prof. Charles Quaker Dokubo

The presidency has said it would continue the amnesty programme for militants in the Niger Delta, stating that the initiative would eradicate criminality in the oil-rich region.

Special Adviser to the President on the amnesty programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, said the advice from some quarters that the scheme be terminated was ill-conceived.

He described the scheme as an adhoc programme by government, insisting that it should go on. Dokubo said the new policies and objectives of the programme would further transform the region.

The presidential aide spoke yesterday in Abonnema, his home town in Rivers State while on seasonal vacation.

He said that since the inception of the programme, a lot of youths from the Niger Delta had benefited from numerous scholarships and vocational skills. Good vocational centres had been established at Kaiama and other places. He assured his kinsmen that more of the centres would be established during the second tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The government has done a lot about the amnesty programme. It has not relented in its support for the programme. With the type of vocational centres that have been developed in Kaiama and other places, I strongly believe that the next time President Buhari is coming, I know he will come, he will make things to better for this programme.”

“I believe President Buhari is the right person for this country and to sustain the amnesty programme. I know that he is going to win because of his good works. It is not about shouting,” he said.

Dokubo enjoined the people of Niger Delta to vote en masse for President Buhari in appreciation of what he has been doing for the region through the programme.

The special adviser said he was in Abonnema to sensitize and mobilize his kinsmen to massively vote for President Buhari. He said his local government, Akuku Toru, would be the first to return Buhari.

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