Niger Delta coalition backs Jonathan on amnesty

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13 December 2011

Niger Delta coalition backs Jonathan on amnesty

A coalition of Niger Delta ethnic and civil society groups on Tuesday said it was in support of the declaration that there would be no third phase of amnesty to Niger Delta militants.

The coalition, United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS), said in Lagos that what the region now needed was massive human and infrastructure development.

President Goodluck Jonathan, speaking through his special adviser on Niger Delta Matters, Kingsley Kuku, had on Sunday, said there would be no third phase of the programme, as the final window given for disarmament had closed since October 4, 2009.

He condemned the blocking of the Lokoja-Abuja highway by thousands of ex-militants recently, insisting that there would not be amnesty for anybody caught in any criminal act anymore.

The ex-militants had on December 8, blocked the

North-South Highway

at Jama’ata, Kogi - around the River Niger’s Murtala Mohammed Bridge - demanding an implementation of the amnesty programme .

The secretary general of UNDEDSS, Tony Uranta, however, said that amnesty was not a long-term sustainable programme.