The amnesty process will not entertain the payment of cash for arms arrangement, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Amnesty and Disarmament and Nigerian minister of finance, Mansur Muhtar said Friday in Abuja.
Mr. Muhtar, who spoke alongside members of the committee, said the N50billion naira initially mentioned was only a projection, and that it may consume more money, as the process will last a long time after the stated the six months.
“Granting amnesty is not an overnight exercise, it will involve all Nigerians and it will take time,” he said.
He explained that there are different stages in the amnesty process, including accepting the offer, surrendering of ammunitions, rehabilitation and integration into the society.
The Chief Coordinator of the Implementation Committee of the Presidential Amnesty for Niger Delta Militants, Lucky Ararile added that the rehabilitation programme is actually in three phases.
“The first phase is the collection point; from the collection point, they will go to what is called the reintegration centre, where the demobilisation and the reintegration process will be done.
“The reintegration process involves sorting out the ex-militants into their areas of interest -those who want to go to school will be given the opportunity of doing so, those who want to go into businesses will be assisted to do so, those who want to go for vocational training will be assisted to do so.
“That part of the programme is a long term one and not within the 60 days ultimatum we are talking about. The Ministry of the Niger Delta is working on the package and how it will be implemented with collaboration of agencies like NAPEP, PTDF; even the major oil companies are involved in the whole process.”
He said the location of the centres will be in Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States -with four collection points and two reintegration centre. The other states – Ondo, Akwa Ibom and Edo have two collection points and one reintegration centre each.
Counting the days
Meanwhile, the amnesty period of 60 days given by the Mr. Umaru Yar’Adua will start counting from the 6th of August and run till the 4th of October 2009. The committee will do consultations between now and August.
The Minister for Interior Mr. Godwin Abbe said that, henceforth, any militant that decides to surrender his ammunition can do so, as the police stations have been instructed to accept them.
On when the joint task force will be withdrawn from the creeks of the Niger Delta, Paul Dike, the Chief of Defence Staff, said they were constituted for a particular purpose, which was to maintain peace and security in the Niger delta, and will only be withdrawn when that purpose has been achieved.
“We must all recognise as a matter of fact that the JFT is established for a purpose to ensure peace and security within the Niger Delta region,” he said. “Once that objective is achieved, the JTF will fizzle out.
But it is important to continue to recognise that the military formations will continue to exist in the Niger Delta. We have briefed the leadership of the JTF for them to understand what the amnesty stands for and the JTF will respect all the conditions contained in the amnesty that has been proclaimed by Mr. President.”
Mr Abbe said the amnesty proclamation covers those who are directly or indirectly involved in militancy. This includes those whose names were sent to the president as sponsors of the militants group, though the names have still not been made public.
On the case of detained militant, Henry Okah, the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Segun Adeniyi, said his, was an issue that involves Angola and Nigeria.
“What the President will be doing in the next couple of days will be to send special envoy to that country’s president whom he had discussions with before Henry Okah was extradited to Nigeria, that this is a decision that has been taken by Nigeria and out of courtesy, he needs to inform them that under this amnesty he wants to extend it to Henry Okah. It is only fair and normal that he will do that, after which Henry Okah will be offered the amnesty and, if he accepts, will be released.”
The Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro said some of the militants have shown their willingness to lay down their arms.
“We have been in touch with most of them and, naturally, you don’t expect them to come out now, that is before the proclamation of amnesty,” he said. “We have been in touch with some of their representatives or lawyers. They are Solomon Barry Ogene, alias Osama Bin Laden; Atake Tom and his lawyers, Farrah Dagogo and Boyloaf have been in touch.”
He said one of the militants, one Solomon, has said he was going to surrender his arms Friday.
“After this briefing, I am going to Port Harcourt to go and collect some of the arms from them,” he said. “So, some of them have been in touch and ready to embrace the amnesty.”