From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Some ex Niger/Delta militants under the aegis of Sea Wolf Avengers have dragged the Federal and Ondo State Governments to court over alleged failure to fulfill their parts of the amnesty programme.
Leader of the group, Deji Williams made this known while speaking with journalists in Igbokoda, headquarters of Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State.
According to him the concerned parties have been served pre-action notice.
He said many ex-militants are highly disappointed that the government has not kept its promises, saying “We have made several reports and nothing has been done up till now.”
Williams said ”In 2017, when the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, was the acting president, he came to Igbokoda, where the youths came out and told him that “our major problem is amnesty and surveillance”.
“We told him that we needed amnesty and surveillance. He told the current governor, Rotimi Akeredolu to immediately come and meet him in his office in Abuja to address the issue.
“After the governor had met with the federal government, they called on all the militants to surrender their arms, after which a meeting was held at the International Culture and Event Centre (The Dome) and that was the Amnesty flag off day.
“The programme had many top government functionaries in attendance which included Special Adviser to the President.
”After the programme, we were given 21 days to surrender our arms with a promise to pay us monthly stipends as well as expose us to training on skill acquisition programmes.
“At the event, there was also a promise that some of us would be sent abroad to acquire more skills”, he said.
“We are highly disappointed that the government has not kept its promises. We have made several reports and nothing has been done up till now.
“We wrote many letters to complain that we have been disarmed by the federal government and nothing has been done.
“Some militants were disarmed in Lagos and they are getting paid. Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike offered amnesty to some militants in Rivers State and they are being paid.
“Do they want us to go back to our vomits? When we talk about amnesty in Ondo State, we the Ilaje/Eseodo federal constituency, we don’t depend on the state allocation, what we depend on is OSOPADEC and NDDC.
“To my greatest surprise, the state government is doing empowerment through OSOPADEC for the youths of the region, that is pipeline Security surveillance. In Ilaje and Ese Odo local government areas. We have the old amnesty where militants that surrendered arms during the tenure of former President Musa Yaradua which is the first phase of the amnesty.
“We also have the new amnesty. We surrendered arms in 2017. I am the most senior general in 2017 amnesty, I have been a general since the days of Tompolo. I was served a letter of invitation of amnesty proclamation from the National Orientation Agency.”
He also frowned at the way the state government has handled the pipeline surveillance contract .
According to him, it is sad that the ex-militants were not carried along in the scheme of things, having worked for Governor Akeredolu to win the election in his first time.
“The state government is supposed to use the surveillance to take care of us because we are very angry with the state.
“It is our turn to be empowered with surveillance job, if the state government wants to give it to Ilaje, it should be between, the old and new amnesty,” he added.
