Nigerian Army is considering the request of the Presidential Amnesty Office to recruit a number of transformed Niger Delta ex-militants into the Army, according to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Onyeabo Azubuike Ihejirika.
Lt.-General Ihejirika disclosed this while responding to the request by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, who paid a courtesy call on him in his Abuja office.
The Chief of Army Staff, according to a statement by the Head of Media and Communication of the Amnesty Office, Henry Ugbolue, pointedly declared that the request to have a number of the Niger Delta ex-combatants join the Army was not out of place.
He expressed the firm optimism that the Nigerian Army could indeed tap from the vast experience of the transformed ex-militants in the area of professional diving , swimming and other amphibious activities.
The Army, he also said, may consider recruiting ex-combatants with proven technical or artisan abilities into its Engineering Corps.
Gen. Ihejirika was however quick to point out to the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta that the decision to recruit Niger Delta ex-combatants into the Nigerian Army would be a collective one and will be considered by the military high command.
“We will consider this request. It is true that the Armed Forces do not recruit persons with criminal record but these ones, the former combatants in the Niger Delta, are not absolute criminals and we shall take into cognisance the fact that they have gone through non-violence transformational training,” he said.
Earlier, Hon. Kuku, who went down memory lane to recount the huge contributions and sacrifices men and Officers of the Nigeria Army have been making in the bid to achieve lasting peace in the Niger Delta, said the Amnesty Programme would not have been a success but for the dogged commitment of the Nigerian Army to the disarmament phase of the programme.
“I wish to commiserate with the Nigerian Army for the losses you recorded in the Niger Delta over the years in our collective efforts to achieve lasting peace in that part of our country,” he said.
“It is true that the Amnesty Programme is a resounding success. It is also true that the Amnesty Programme is a political solution to the Niger Delta problem. But we can not forget the contribution of the Nigeria Army to the restoration of peace in the Niger Delta.
“If the Army did not take the disarmament phase of the Amnesty Programme seriously, we would not be talking about the Programme today”, Kuku said.
Briefing the Chief of Army Staff on the current status of the Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kuku said that in pursuance of the Programme’s core objectives of demobilising and reintegrating the former Niger Delta combatants into civil society, 13,917 of the total enrolled number of 20,192 in the first phase of the Programme have undertaken non-violence transformational training at the Amnesty Demobilisation Camp, located in Obubra, Cross River State.
He said that on completion of their non-violence training and career classification in the Camp, the Amnesty Office has successfully placed a total of 4,759 former combatants in 57 skills acquisition/training centres in 13 States of the Federation while another 2,618 have been slated for training offshore.
Of this offshore quota, Hon. Kuku said 38 trainees have since commenced their vocational training in South Africa while another batch of 212 were placed in six skills acquisition centres in Ghana.
The Special Adviser sought the involvement of the Nigerian Army in the reintegration phase of the Amnesty Programme and urged the Chief of Army Staff to consider admitting into the Army, a number of the transformed ex-militants especially given that several of them have already indicated interest in joining the Nigerian Army and other branches of the Armed Forces.
About 300 Niger Delta ex-combatants who have gone through the non-violence transformation training have indicated interest in joining the Nigerian Army
Feb242011