Ex-militants Threaten Violence over Non-payment of Allowances

Former militants undergoing training in electric power transformer repairs and maintenance under the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) have vowed to return to the creeks and unleash violence in the Niger Delta unless their training allowances are paid.

The threat was issued on Monday as 200 trainees, accompanied by scores of sympathetic ex-militants, marched from their training camp at the Rivers State University to the Port Harcourt Zonal Office of the PAP at New GRA in protest against the non-payment of their allowances.

The protesters carried placards pleading with President Muhammadu Buhari to order the payment of their allowances to enable them complete their training or they would be forced to return to their former trade in the creeks.

 

Some of the placards read: ‘President Buhari hear our cry’; ‘Back to Class or Back to Creek, Prof Dokubo, choose for us;’; and ‘Presidential Amnesty Fund for Transformers Repairs Training or We Return to the Creeks’.

Speaking to journalists on behalf of the protesters, Biira Barida of the Osama Ex-Militants Camp said the training billed to last for nine months has been stalled by the stoppage of their N90,000 monthly allowance after just two months payments by the contractor in charge over alleged non-remittance by the PAP office.

Barida said: “We resumed  July 3, 2019, only to be asked to go home on October 31 due to lack of funding and refusal to pay contractual obligations to contractor/consultant of Electric Power Transformer Repairs and Maintenance Training.

“Most disappointing is the fact that power distribution is a major challenge in Nigeria due to very limited skilled and semi-skilled manpower in this technical-intensive area. The training was envisioned to grow local capacity in transformer manufacturing and maintenance to save millions of dollars on overseas training or technical support.”

He wondered “if N4.5billion could be expended on procurement of items which were later looted, why can't Amnesty office pay for this training that is so essential for national growth? Why do the government and its agencies prefer violence to meaningful engagement?”

Among their demands, the protesters called on “President Buhari to urgently intervene, and for PAP under Prof Charles Dokubo to, within the next seven working days, commence payment for the training classes to resume and enable us reintegrate fully into the society and take care of ourselves and families.

“Failure to heed our peaceful advice to release fund, we shall take this agitation to another level. The federal government and the public should be informed that we are being forced to recall our former way of life. So, we either go back to class or back to the creek”

Meanwhile, when contacted, Spokesman to Prof Charles Dokubo, Coordinator of the PAP, Murphy Ganaga, said: “No comment!”