Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Nigeria demobilizes 19,000 Niger Delta militants


APA
9 September 2011


Abuja (Nigeria) More than 19,000 of the 20,192 Niger Delta militants that enrolled in the first phase of the national Amnesty Programme have been fully demobilised, just as more than 1,200 others have been slated for non-violence transformation training this month, Kingsley Kuku, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, said in Abuja on Friday.

According to Kingsley Kuku, many of the ex-militants have been sent overseas for various vocational training in readiness for their admission into the civilian society.

He said that the various training for the ex-militants was in pursuance of the core objectives of demobilising and reintegrating the former militants into the civilian life.

Kuku said that the Amnesty office had successfully placed a total of 4,149 of the ex-militants in skills acquisition and training centres and in formal education institutions both in the country and abroad.

He added that another 5, 618 were being processed for placement in reintegration centres. "In all, 3,482 amnesty programme beneficiaries are in 77 training centres within the country," he said.

The Special adviser said the biggest challenge facing the programme was the negative activities of thousands of youths from the Niger Delta states (south) who failed to embrace the amnesty offer before the expiring date.

"The amnesty programme has no third phase and we do not intend to have one except the President instructs otherwise,’’ Kuku stressed. .

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