Stop Discriminating Against Us, Ex-Agitators Warn Amnesty Office

The leader of the Ex-agitators phase two in Akwa Ibom State, Comrade Imoh Okoko, has warned the Amnesty office against discrimination of his members.

Imoh alleged that his members have been sidelined in so many ways including invitations to meetings and over sea training programs among other things.

Okoko, in a statement Monday expressed disappointment that despite the huge resources from the state part of which is used in running the affairs of the Amnesty office, Ex-agitators from the state were being discriminated against with no cogent reason.

“We wish to state for the avoidance of any doubt that Ex-militants of Akwa Ibom State origin have been sidelined, neglected and discriminated against, despite the huge contribution of our State to the country’s oil revenue, a great portion which is used for running the Amnesty Programme.

“Some aspects of the discrimination include failure to carry the people along with regards to invitations to meetings and other important events that demand the participation of ex-militants in the Niger Delta region, and exclusion from the trainings and empowerment programs organized by the Amnesty office.

“We wish to emphasize here that the main agenda or principal objective of the amnesty programme is the training and empowerment of the Niger Delta ex-agitators to reduce crisis in the region.

“Regrettably, our people have been excluded from the various trainings and empowerment programmes organised by the Amnesty office on the pretext that names of our members are not in the Amnesty training database.

“It is very disheartening to see people from other states undergoing training and empowerment programmes on weekly basis, while those from Akwa Ibom State are being shut out without any cogent reason. Even overseas trainings have been organized without the consideration of any person from Akwa Ibom State.

He added, “We have also witnessed the intentional removal of names of some Akwa Ibom ex-agitators from the amnesty payroll and their replacement with names of people from other states, something which has been going on for some years now without any explanation, thus making it impossible for these affected beneficiaries to continue receiving their monthly stipends.

“Despite our continued protests, Amnesty officials have consistently refused to listen to us. We hereby demand for the immediate re-instatement of these affected members and the payment of all their backlog of outstanding stipends.

In his reactions, the head of media, Amnesty office Mr. Murphy Ganagana, said it’s the right of every Ex- militants to be trained because it is the essence of the Amnesty office but it depends on the kind of trade one wants to be trained in.

He said the camp leaders would forward such names for profiling in preparation for the training.

“The camp leaders will send the names for profiling for us to know. It depends on what you want to be trained on. For instance people will want to be trained on welding, another person will like to do hair dressing and another on shoemaking according to what their needs are.

“Maybe we need an average of one hundred to go for shoemaking they will begin to profile all of them. Our people are not patient.

“It is right of every Ex- militants to be trained it is their right and nobody can deny them that right,” he said.