In 2009, President Umaru Yar'Adua introduced the Presidential Amnesty Office as part of a programme to end the Niger Delta militancy. His programme involved paying militants monthly stipends under an amnesty scheme that would involve them laying down their arms and going on training courses.
Since coming to power in May this year, President Buhari has pledged to keep the programme in place but there are now fears that he may slash the budget as part of planned cutbacks. Yesterday, the militants under the umbrella of Presidential Amnesty Phase II, warned against this, stating that if their allocation was cut, they may return to violence.
Marching through Warri in Delta State, the ex-militants who comprised those in the 6166 Presidential Amnesty Phase II, 3142 and the 20192 Phase III and Phase I, stated that the proposed N20bn for the initiative was unacceptable to them. While calling on the federal government to respect the memorandum of understanding signed with them, they lamented that the proposed new amount being proposed could not cater for their monthly stipends.
One of the militants said: “We say no to the plan to reduce the amnesty budget. Buhari, please don’t force us to go back to the creeks.”
Placards they carried bore inscriptions like "Saraki, leave our budget alone", "Ex-militants reject the 2016 amnesty budget" and "The amnesty budget should increase and not reduce". Aso Tambo, the national chairman of the 6166 Presidential Amnesty Phase II, accused the federal government of allegedly slashing their monthly allowance in its current budget to N20bn (£65.6m) as against the N68bn (£223m) budgeted for the office last year.
Mr Tambo added: “Our problem is that we have been receiving budget of this programme from October 4, 2009 till today and our budget used to be N86bn. Last year it was N68bn but this year, we were reliably informed that the 2016 budget for the programme is N20bn.
“If they are giving presidential amnesty programme a budget of N20bn, we don’t know what the federal government wants to use the money for because N24bn is what they use in paying the N65,000 monthly stipends of the 30,000 ex-militants. Is it for our stipend or is it to push us to the creeks to go and fight a war, or they want to use the money to buy arms for us to go and fight Boko Haram?"
He warned the Buhari-led government to leave the amnesty programme alone if it wants to sustain the peace initiated by the late President Yar’Adua in 2009. Mr Tambo further stated that the alleged reduction in their monthly stipends had reached a provocative climax.
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