FEARS of renewed violence in the Niger Delta are growing after several militant groups decided to regroup in their camps deeps within the creeks using them as safe havens to hide kidnap victims while negotiating for ransom.
Since assuming office on May 29, President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged to keep the amnesty programme first launched by President Umaru Yar'Adua in 2008. It involves training the militants, paying them a monthly wage and re-integrating them into society in exchange for them laying down their arms.
Last month, President Buhari named retired Brigadier Paul Boroh as the new coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. Brigadier Boroh has already assumed duty with a promise to strengthen the programme and make it more efficient and beneficial to the people and his appointment has been widely welcomed by militant groups.
However, despite the existing amnesty pact between the region and the federal government, active militant camps are still being operated in the creeks. One security source said many of such camps still exist in Bayelsa and Delta States and called on the military to conduct aerial surveillance of various forests, creeks and mangroves to isolate and destroy such camps.
It is believed that following the exit of former President Goodluck Jonathan, there is a plot by some ex-militant leaders to resurrect the Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (Mend). As a result, tension has returned to the region amid fears that the militants may unleash violence in the Niger Delta.
Following President Buhari's victory, a planned meeting of some militants called by militant leader Government Ekpemupolo popularly known as Tompolo in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, generated so much panic and security concerns that it had to be called off. Unconfirmed reports, however, said that some of the ex-militant leaders later met secretly at an undisclosed location in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.
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