Some of the militants who accepted the amnesty deal and surrendered their arms to the Federal Government will be taken to the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre, Jos, for reorientation and training, the director general of the centre, Yusuf Adamu has said.
Mr Adamu said in Jos on Monday that the centre is ready to train more militants and impart leadership qualities in them to make them more useful to the country.
He said the training offered by the institute affords participants the opportunity to improve themselves as responsible citizens of the country.
“The people that are leading us today started like you and I. Have no doubt in mind that you are going to perform better than what we are seeing today when you are given the opportunity as leaders of our great country,” he said.
Over 8,000 repentant militants who have been registered by the Federal Government are currently undergoing biometric documentation, following which they will undergo reorientation.
In Akure, the Deputy Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Mayowa Akinfolarin on Wednesday, warned President Umaru Yar’Adua about the danger of not fulfilling promises made to the ex-militants.
“The sincerity on the part of government would bring everlasting peace to the region, but only God will save the area if government fails to keep its promises,” he said.
Don’t neglect the militants
Commenting on the recent protest by a group of former militants in Edo State, which led to the death of four people, Mr Akinfolarin warned that said if the Federal Government does not take proper care of the men, Nigeria may experience a long military crisis in the Niger Delta and beyond.
“If the boys are not properly taken care of, it might later have negative effects on society as they might later form robbery squads that would be tormenting people’s lives,” the lawmaker said.
He also appealed to politicians not to engage in thuggery during and after elections. He said that after the polls, the ammunitions handed out to thugs to rig election might be difficult to recover from them.