Amnesty Programme: INDI alleges fresh exclusion of Itsekiris, insists on overhaul of 29- member committee

The Itsekiri National Development Initiative, INDI, has accused the Presidential Amnesty Office, under the leadership of Professor Charles Dokubo, of fresh exclusion of Itsekiri Ethnic Nationality from the two hundred and fifty persons given starter-packs in the Niger Delta States, to set up businesses in their respective trade areas.

According to a report by Media Aide to Coordinator of the Programme, Mr. Murphy Ganagana, the beneficiaries who got various items as starter-packs, were drawn from communities such as Opukiri, Ogwashi-Uku, Abonnema, Degema, Auchi, Yakkur/Calabar South, Eket/Ikot-Ikpene, Ohaji Egbema/Owerri, Ilaje/Okitikpupa, Ukwa East/West as well as Umuahia North/South in Abia, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Cross Rivers, Imo, Ondo and Akwa Ibom States.

INDI in a statement released last night, Sunday January 26, noted: “There is no record of any Itsekiri benefiting in the empowerment from Warri South, Warri North and Warri South West Local Government Areas, even though we were captured in the third phase of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.”

The statement which was signed by Com. Dennis Mene, President Itsekiri National Development Initiative, INDI and Coordinator, Itsekiri Ex-agitators Forum, Com. Wilson Keneku, Secretary Itsekiri Ex-agitators Forum and John Okotie, reiterated their earlier demand for an overhaul of the Elder Timi Kaiser Ogoriba led 29- member Presidential Amnesty Programme Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, as a result of the non-inclusion of any person from Itsekiri Ethnic Nationality, “as critical stakeholder or as professional in the third phase.”

While calling on the Presidential Amnesty Office to prioritize the Itsekiri Ex-agitators in the skills’ acquisition category and approval of genuine vendors for the training of Ex-agitators with a view to ensuring that they are quickly deployed to their training centres, INDI noted that from 2014 till date, no single Itsekiri Ex-agitator have been deployed for training.

While thanking the leadership of the Warri Development Congress and the Niger Delta Advocates for Good Governance and Environmental Justice for, “the immense contributions to this struggle and to ensure that Itsekiri Ex-agitators in the third phase benefit maximally from the programme”, INDI warned: “Should the office continue with the marginalization of Itsekiri Nation, we will not hesitate to mobilize to the Presidential Amnesty Office to drive home our demand.”

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