Reports suggest that about 1,500 Niger Delta militants on Sunday, February 14, expressed their desire to surrender to the federal government by embracing the amnesty programme.
Their decision followed the intervention of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.
File photo of minister of state for petroleum resource, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu
The Punch reports that they, however, warned that their willingness to surrender arms should not be seen as an act of cowardice but an act of patriotism.
The militants’ resolution was contained in a statement in Abuja by their leaders, O.C. Babaeere and America Tekeiminikpoba, on behalf of other Commanders from Arepo, Ikorodu, Abule, Fatorla, Ibafo, Magboro, Epe, Itokin, Ilepete, Okenekene, Agric, Gbokoda camps, Camp 5 and environs.
The militants expressed their desire to surrender arms and embrace the amnesty programme so long as the government remained sincere.
While premising their action on the peaceful approach of Kachikwu, the militants declared that all NNPC facilities and their subsidiaries must work for the betterment of Nigeria and the economic efficiency in the face of dwindling oil prices.
“We also agree that all NNPC facilities and its subsidiaries must work for the betterment of Nigeria and the economic efficiency in the face of dwindling oil pricesa,” the statement said.
“However, our willingness to surrender should not be seen as an act of cowardice, rather, as an act of patriotism,” they stressed.
Meanwhile, the coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Gen Paul Boroh (rtd), has reacted to the alleged spending of N48 billion by the office in five months.
Speaking in an interview with NAN in Abuja, on February 11, Boro, who is the special adviser to the president on Niger Delta, d enied the allegation that was widely reported in some national dailies.
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