By Akanimo Sampson
Unpaid stipends to repentant militants by the management of Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) is currently threatening to disrupt the relative peace in the Niger Delta.
The Niger Delta is the honey comb of Nigeria that is reeling in abject poverty and oil pollution said to be the worse in the world.
While there are growing concerns a post-fossil fuel era would leave the oil region the worst hit as there is no robust agro sector to cushion the likely effects on the impoverished people, aggrieved repentant militants are threatening to disrupt presidential campaign in the area.
At the moment, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 President candidate of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), his All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, and Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP), are battling for the soul of the oil region.
They are all claiming that the region will not be the same again if any of them succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
In spite of their political promises, some ex-militants are bracing to block their campaigns in the oil-polluted region if nothing is done speedily about their pay.
In a protest to the Bayelsa State Council of Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Yenagoa, the state capital, the militants claimed that 2,952 of them are yet to be paid.
Their monthly stipend is N65,000 per month.
Apart from disrupting the presidential campaigns, they are also threatening occupy PAP offices in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
Continuing, they said failure to pay the affected 2,952 beneficiaries of Phase 2 of the amnesty deal, will create fresh tension in the oil region.
Leader of the Phase 2 beneficiaries, Aso Tambo, has even given PAP a seven-day ultimatum to commence immediate payment of those who were allegedly delisted from the payroll of the programme.
“Despite the achievements recorded by the Interim Administrator, Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd.) in the area of security commitment from the head of service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the area of employment for beneficiaries, the refusal to pay the 2,952 beneficiaries will provoke tension and destroy the existing fragile peace in the region.
“Under the phase two beneficiaries, the refusal of the amnesty office to return the affected 2,952 beneficiaries to the payroll and immediately pay them their stipends will create tension in the region.
“We have all met and adopted our strategy against the refusal of the amnesty office to pay 2,952 beneficiaries.
“We want them to pay those affected within one week or else we will mobilise and occupy the presidential amnesty office in a strategic manner.
“If it is not still paid, we will not allow a peaceful conduct of presidential campaigns within the nine states of the Niger Delta region.
“If they feel we are dogs that bark and can not bite, they should dare us and see the consequence. They should consider the monthly stipends important and know that such payment will lead to an unimaginable crises of not paid immediately”, the leader said.
In the meantime, the obviously bitter ex-militants are calling on PAP to engage stakeholders and beneficiaries before selecting those to benefit from the ongoing scholarship programme aimed at enrolling 20 persons in institutions of higher learning.
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