Three days to the expiration of the Federal Government’s deadline for Niger Delta militants to embrace its amnesty offer, prominent factional leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta [MEND] Mr. Ateke Tom turned up at the State House in Abuja yesterday to embrace the offer. Tom then had a meeting with President Umaru Yar’adua.
At the meeting, Yar’Adua congratulated Ateke Tom and described his decision to embrace amnesty as Nigeria’s 49th Independence Anniversary gift to him as President. “I cherish it most because it is for peace and security in the Niger Delta,” Yar’Adua said.
Until he embraced the offer yesterday, Tom was one of the three factional leaders with links to the main militant group MEND who had not done so. His men were responsible for some of the most vicious attacks on oil installations, including the attack launched on the city of Port Harcourt on New Year’s Day last year.
In the last few weeks, Tom and his supporters had been urging the government to extend the offer for amnesty to give the militant leader more time to study it, but Defence Minister General Godwin Abbe said earlier this week that government would not extend the offer. He also said anyone who refuses to accept it by Sunday would be testing the government’s will.
Presidential spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi confirmed Ateke Tom’s visit to the State House. Mr. Jonjon Oyeinfe, former head of the Ijaw Youth Council who is close to Tom, also said, “He’s visiting the president to embrace the amnesty and tell him there are a few things that need to be done before he surrenders his arms.”
Oyeinfe said Tom wants assurances of his personal safety should he decide to hand over his weapons. He said the militant leader will also demand that more oil revenues be provided to local communities in the Niger delta region.
With Ateke Tom’s surrender yesterday, it was unclear whether fellow militant hardliners Government Tompolo and Farah Dagogo would embrace the amnesty before Sunday’s deadline. MEND, under whose umbrella all three men operate, has responsible for attacks that have wreaked havoc on this country’s oil industry in the last three years. Only three days ago, MEND said it was naming a team of mediators to negotiate with the government on disarmament. It named Professor Wole Soyinka as head of the 3-member team.
Ijaw youth leader Oyeinfe however told Reuters yesterday that even if top rebel commanders decide to surrender, there is little to prevent their boys from finding new leaders and resuming their attacks. “Even if all the known militants give up, it won’t bring lasting peace unless the issues of developing the Niger Delta are addressed,” Oyeinfe said.
Under the Federal Government’s amnesty programme, ex-militants were promised a stipend, education and job training. Presidential adviser Timi Alaibe said up to 6,000 militants have embraced the amnesty offer, but hundreds of them complain that they have yet to receive any money. The government’s rehabilitation and reintegration programmes have also yet to be fully launched.