Tunde Thomas
Ijaw Youth Development Association (IYDA) has dismissed as untrue the claims by some youths who described themselves as ex-militants during their visit to the National Assembly in Abuja recently.
While describing the claim by the youths as a tissue of lie capable of misleading the public, the group in a statement signed by its President, Nicolas Igarama and Publicity Secretary, Colins Areyefa, said the youths who described themselves as militants are just beneficiaries of an empowerment programme approved for some individuals and communities in the Niger Delta under the Amnesty programme.
“These youths who went to Abuja to parade themselves falsely as militants including members of the Ijaw Youth Development Association (IYDA) are beneficiaries of a part of the Amnesty programme which is being co-ordinated by the Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG).
“There are over 100 persons benefitting from this programme and these include the young and old among other categories of persons,’’ the statement added.
The group further added that previous attempts by the youths that went to Abuja to classify or tag themselves as ex-militants had failed citing a judgment by the Federal High Court, Warri in 2016 as an example.
“These greedy youths approached the Federal High Court, Warri in 2016 claiming to be ex-militants but the court dismissed their claims as they have no evidence that they took part in the disarmament process where ex-militants dropped their arms.”