ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
Presidential Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta is set to commence the verification of ex-agitators captured in the scheme, a member of the Amnesty Strategic Committee, Comrade Tonye Bobo, has revealed.
He stated that the Presidency had approved the decision of the Amnesty Office to conduct the verification of the 30,000 ex-agitators captured under the programme in the last 11 years.
Bobo confirmed the development on Thursday during a courtesy visit to members of the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Bayelsa State Council.
He stated that already, PAP Interim Administrator, Milland Dikio had set up a 10-man committee of ‘Amnesty think tank’ with the mandate to enrich, monitor and propagate the new roadmap of the programme to reposition and ensure that the new policies are close to the Niger Delta communities.
Bobo said the verification was not a witch hunt, but a strategic way of verifying those that were captured and those still left out of the scheme.
He said the verification had also received the backing of all the ex-militant leaders in the region.
He stated: “It is said that the Amnesty Office does not have the power to admit new beneficiaries. We agreed with them. It is also agreed that for us to know those 30,000 beneficiaries, we have to conduct the verification (exercise).
He also promised that as a member of the new ‘think tank’ of the Amnesty office, the committee would engage critical stakeholders from the grassroots to the top to offer their advice or solutions concerning the affairs of the region.
Bobo, a PAP beneficiary under the Third Phase, said the new committee set up by the Interim Administrator Milland Dikio is also saddled with the responsibility of sustaining the prevailing peace in the region.
He added that the issues of the PAP have to do with the re-integration of the 30,000 ex-agitators captured in the programme and the development in the region.
“As one of the change agents of the PAP, I am ready to bring to the fore ideas that will help to achieve the desired and anticipated transformation in the region. We commend the Interim Administrator, Col. Milland Dikio, for the new assignment,” Bobo stated.