Chief Ayirimi Emami insists on scrapping of Amnesty Programme

The Akulagba of Warri Kingdom and Niger Delta activist, Chief Ayirimi Emami has hit back at the pockets of critics who are against his recent call for the scrapping of the Presidential Amnesty programme for “purported ex-militants”, insisting that the few Niger Deltans craving for the continuation of the programme are self-seekers, who are only concerned with pecuniary gains, instead of genuine infrastructural, educational and socio-economic development of the Oil as well as Gas rich Niger Delta region.

In a press statement issued from Beirut, Lebanon Monday May 18, Chief Emami averred that even though he is a beneficiary of the Pipeline Surveillance Contract, he is in support of the reported  plan by the Buhari/Osinbajo administration to revoke the surveillance contract, “because in the course of executing the contract we discovered that some so called ex-militants who benefitted from the Amnesty Programme and a few others who were awarded Pipeline Surveillance Contract are practically involved in illegal oil bunkering and unconventional refining of the Nation’s Crude Oil”.

He stressed, “the incoming administration can go ahead with the alleged plan to revoke the Pipeline Surveillance Contract awarded to some Niger Deltans, if it so wishes, after all, we are not military men and can only offer useful pieces of information that can assist the security agencies in effectively carrying out their constitutional responsibility of protecting our facilities and territorial boundaries”.

The Warri based philanthropist and businessman noted, “with the present harsh economic realities facing our Nation, any wise and right thinking Niger Deltan should prevail on the incoming Buhari/Osinbajo administration to channel the so called amnesty money and that expended on Pipeline Surveillance Contract on infrastructural, educational, agricultural and socio-economic development of the region”, adding “the dwindling crude oil price at the International Market has even made it more imperative for programmes which serve only a few people to be discontinued forthwith”.

Chief Emami quipped, “the statement of former Vice President and Chieftain of my party, APC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Channels Television on Sunday May 17, 2015 in an exclusive interview, where he stated emphatically that the only thing Niger Deltans can boast of from the out-going Federal Government “is turning a few ex-militants to billionaires, calls for deep reflection by all genuine Niger Delta sons and daughters, rather than criticize my sincere call for new approach to tackle under-development, environmental degradation and ocean surge bedeviling our region”.

While declaring that the major purpose of the amnesty programme was not achieved and oil theft worsening, despite the surveillance contract which he believes can be better handled by the conventional Nigerian military, Chief Emami averred, “the fresh protests by purported beneficiaries of majority of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, claiming they have not been paid their stipends for several months by the Presidential Amnesty Office anchored by Mr. Kingsley Kuku, despite the colossal  amount expended on the programme, gives credence to my earlier call for the incoming administration to investigate the programme, which is largely skewed in favour of a particularly ethnic group”.

He called on the incoming Federal Government to implement the Rule of Law in all parts of the country, especially in the Niger Delta, stressing that anyone still carrying out militancy in the region, pretending to be ex-militant should be prosecuted.

According to him, if the Federal Government continue to expend our little resources on a few people in the name of Amnesty Programme, regional groups like MASSOB, OPC and the vicious Boko Haram sect are very likely to agitate for amnesty, thus promoting violence to the detriment of education, merit and hard-work.

Chief Emami also admonished the Buhari/Osinbajo administration to take a critical look at the Ogidigben Export Processing Zone, EPZ cum Delta Industrial Gas City, the Dangote Refinery at Epe, Lagos State as well as the Olokola Gas Project spanning through parts of Ondo and Ogun States, with a view to giving it the necessary government support to enable the projects  effectively tackle the freighting rate of unemployment through the creation of thousands of direct and indirect employment opportunities, developing local content as well as building the capacity of Niger Delta people in particular and the Nation at large.

×