Ex-militant Leader, Ayiri Emami Ask Buhari To Stop Amnesty Programme

Former Itsekiri warlord Chief Ayiri Emami has urged President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari to put an end to the ongoing Amnesty Programme for ex-militants of the Niger Delta, which was started by the late Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua.

He reportedly asked that the programme's operations be probed.

Emani said on Thursday, April 29, that the use of arms in the name of a struggle should be treated as terrorism, noting that the Amnesty Programme should, however, not be taken for granted.

He said, “If the layman’s understanding of the word amnesty is anything to go by, then it presupposes an arrangement where militants who genuinely turn in all their arms and ammunition are rehabilitated, re-oriented and trained with a view to reintegrating them to everyday societal living.

“In the ordinary sense of it, any person or group that picks up arms in the name of struggle or agitation ought to have been treated as terrorists, hence nobody or group should take the gesture of the federal government for granted.

“Amnesty should not be continuous; partially giving out money to youths from a particular ethnic nationality is wrong, sending some of them abroad for training without any visible impact on the Niger Delta and the nation at large is counter-productive.”

The former Niger Delta militant leader, now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta state is believed to be reacting to the Ijaw Youth Council, who demanded the continuation of the Amnesty Programme for Niger Delta youths.