The Rivers State Governor, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, on Sunday ordered the leader of the Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, Mr. Ateke Tom, to surrender his arms as a proof of his genuine interest in peace.
Tom had on February 13, joined the Niger Delta Non Violent Movement as part of moves to show his willingness to embrace peace.
The NDVM�s leader said he had seen the need to embrace non-violent approach in the struggle for the development of the region.
To indicate his genuine resolve to abandon all forms of violence, he urged his men to equally join the Niger Delta Non Violent Movement, saying that it was the only viable option available to them.
He however said that he had no confidence in the on-going peace process initiated by the government on the grounds that government might later haunt him down like it did to Alhaji Asari Dokubo.
But the governor, who spoke through his Director of Press Affairs, Mr. Ogbonna Nwuke, said that Rivers State did not need the peace of the graveyard.
Nwuke said that the governor had on several occasions, advised gun-wielding youths in the state to lay down their arms, noting that amnesty could only be considered for them, after dropping arms.
He said that the people of the state were not very comfortable with the situation in which some people, who were not trained to handle arms, were in possession of large quantities of weapons of mass destruction.
He said, �If Ateke says that he is tired of fighting, we welcome such a decision. It has confirmed what I have always said that violence cannot yield any positive result. Even when men go to war, it is at the dialogue table that peace is made.
�The condition however is that he must surrender weapons of violence. He does not need to surrender them to the government or the JTF. He can do that to chiefs in his community. The governor has said that and repeated it when traditional rulers from Okrika visited him.
�It is our own offer for peace but we don�t want a situation in which somebody picks a gun and shoots into the midst of people or picks dynamite and detonate it where defenseless citizens are carrying out legitimate businesses. We want peace that is holistic and not that of the graveyard.�