Govt Not Owing Ex-Niger Delta Militants -Kuku

Daily Independent

23 February 2011

Govt Not Owing Ex-Niger Delta Militants -Kuku

Abuja — Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku, has accused the Transformed Niger Delta Ex-Militant Forum of attempting to breed discord between the Federal Government and thousands of Niger Delta ex-militants currently enrolled in the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

A statement by the Amnesty Office in Abuja on Wednesday said contrary to claims by the group, government does not owe the ex-militants allowances. Kuku frowned at the activities of "these persons who are seeking to profit from their obviously sponsored and deliberate plot to breed discord between the Federal Government of Nigeria and Niger Delta ex-combatants".

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It noted further that the "Federal Government never promised to pay Niger Delta ex-combatants who accepted the offer of amnesty in 2009 any form of housing allowance.

"However, what the government promised to do is to pay out to them Reinsertion Safety Allowance.

"The Federal Government is undertaking to pay this particular allowance based on the conviction that the ex-combatants posted to training centres ought to leave some money behind to cater for their families.

"To this end, the Federal Government included this Reinsertion Safety Allowance in the 2011 budget of the Amnesty Programme."