Guardian
22 May 2011
.Only President Can Grant It, Says Kuku
THE sudden change of heart by some previously reluctant former Niger-Delta militant leaders to accept the now expired 2009-amnesty offer of the Federal Government has thrown up a knotty situation.
While the seemingly repentant militia leaders think the pardon is automatic if they had renounced violence and dropped their arms; the Special Adviser (SA) to the President on Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku, thinks otherwise.
According to Kuku, only President Goodluck Jonathan has the powers to grant the former warlords of the creeks amnesty. He spoke in Lagos
Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari, who had declined to participate in the programme on the grounds that he was no criminal that requires amnesty, has reportedly decided to accept it.
Also, John Togo, who had walked out of the programme and returned to the creeks to engage in armed struggle, has expressed readiness to return to the programme.
But in an interactive forum with editors, Kuku said although Dokubo-Asari believes in the process of amnesty programme, he had yet to inform the government of his acceptance of the package.
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“As far as I am concerned, and as SA to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Amnesty Programme, I do need to know where John Togo is.
“So, for the past three days, I have made very severe efforts to ensure that I know his whereabouts, and how healthy or unhealthy he could be, but I have got no sane information.”
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