A delegation from the Centre for Non-Violence and Peace Studies, United States of America has arrived Nigeria for the Federal Government‘s post amnesty programme scheduled to begin on Monday.
The team of 30 peace and conflict resolution experts, consisting of 26 American and four South Africans, was welcomed by the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Timi Alaibe.
The delegation from the University of Rhode Island, USA, was led by Dr. Bernard Lafayette, a peace and conflict resolution expert reputed to have worked with Martin Luther King Jr. during the struggle for the emancipation of African Americans in the US.
Alaibe told journalists on the team‘s arrival on Friday that they were in the country for the post amnesty programme of the Federal Government. This, he said, would involve the training of 20,192 ex-militants in the next six to seven months.
He said the arrival of the team marked the beginning of the demobilization, rehabilitation and re-integration of the ex-militants and ex-combatants.
Reassuring that the team would help restore total peace in the region, Alaibe said they had taken a similar step in fostering peace in violence prone countries.
He said the training would take place in a camp at Obubra, Cross River State.
He explained, ”Ex-militants will arrive at the camp on Monday. Because of the capacity of facilities and number of resource persons available, the 20,192 ex-militants would be handled in batches of 2000 ex-militants each.”
Alaibe recalled that there was delay in the amnesty programme but said the arrival of the team would put the programme on course.
The leader of the team, Lafayette, said the training, which centres on non-violence transformation of the ex-militants, would take two weeks for each stage.
He said the ex-militants would go through various tests such as biometrics, wellness test, guidance and counselling, peace and conflict resolution classes, re-integration classifications and so on.