2nd June, 2016
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Presidential Adviser on Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta, Brig. General Paul Boroh (rtd) has slammed the the Niger Delta Avengers, the militant group sabotaging crude oil pipelines as criminals, who would not be captured in the Amnesty Programme.
Boroh who spoke to journalists in Port Harcourt in the early hours of Thursday on the sidelines of the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to flag-off the clean up of Ogoniland and the implementation of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report said “All ex-agitators captured in the Amnesty Programme have all dissociated themselves from the criminal activities of the Niger Delta Avengers. Amnesty office has dissociated itself from them as well. We are going to work with the security agencies to fish them to face the law.”
Asked if there is possibility of negotiating with them, he said: “That is not the subject matter. We have all dissociated ourselves from them. Even the upcoming ones have no room in the Amnesty Programme. We have no room for the Niger Delta Avengers in our programme.
On the threat by the militant group to continue the bombing the national assets and talking tough to the Nigerian military, he said the Avengers are talking as if they have the wherewithal to confront the Nigerian military. “One of the strengths of criminal gangs is propaganda let them continue to propagate falsehood,” he said.
He said that contrary to the views of skeptics about the success of the Amnesty programme, the federal government has benefited tremendously from the peace in the region and the ex-agitators captured in the programme are happy.