Posted on: 05:39 Sat, 19 Mar 2016



The Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (rtd), said any ex-militant involved in political violence in Rivers State would be dropped from the amnesty package.

Boroh, who is also the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, gave the warning when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Friday.

NAN reports that there had been a resurgence of violence and killings in Rivers State ahead of parliamentary rerun elections on Saturday.

The elections, which involve three Senatorial seats, 12 House of Representatives slots and 22 House of Assembly seats in the state, were ordered by a Court of Appeal.

The March 28, 2015 and April 11, 2015 polls
concerning the seats, respectively, which were
won mainly by candidates of Peoples
Democratic Party, were nullified by the court
following petitions to elections tribunals
challenging the results.

According to Boroh, the Amnesty Office will
exit any beneficiary involved in electoral
violence in Rivers State.

He said: “I am saddened by the circle of
violence cracking up Rivers State.
“This has become more pronounced as the
rerun elections in the state take place.

“Such violence portends danger to the electoral
and governance system in the country.

“Any beneficiary of the programme that takes
part in any violent action should know that he
would be violating the oath he/she took to end
violence which earned him/her the presidential
amnesty.

“Any beneficiary involved in violence will be
exited from the programme, his/her monthly
stipend stopped and will also be brought to
book.”

Boroh said the ex-militants should be at the
vanguard of sustainable peace in the elections,
adding that it was no longer fashionable for
youths to portray themselves as agents of
political violence.

He said any politician who tried to engage
youths in violent act during the elections would
not succeed as the youths had become aware
of the dangers involved in such acts.

He said: “It is only by sustaining the past
leaders’ initiatives on the need for unity of a
state that it will get the desired development.
“Our past leaders and fore-fathers initiatives
hinged on living in peace and harmony
irrespective of our political and ethnic
differences.”

Boroh called on youths to always engage in
developmental activities that would take the
state and the region to greater heights, and
appealed to Niger Deltans to the leaders and
for peace.

“We will be able to get a better society and a better leadership in peace,” he said.

The coordinator said the programme had
achieved its mandate of stabilising a relatively
volatile Niger Delta through its various
interventions.

According to Boroh, the amnesty office has
made progress in the ongoing re-integration
phase of the amnesty programme, which
includes the empowerment of 2,500 delegates
(ex-agitators) and the full employment of 400
others.

He recalled that the office had on December 4,
2015 engaged 78 vendors to empower
additional 1,225 amnesty beneficiaries.

Boroh said the empowerment would lead to the
exit of the beneficiaries from the programme
and would save N955.5 million in stipend
payments annually for the Federal Government.

He said those so trained and empowered would create further employment opportunities in the region.