Ex-Militant, Ayiri Emami Urges Gen. Buhari To End Amnesty Program

Ex Niger Delta militant and a billionaire Stalwart Ayiri Emami, has called on President-elect Gen.Muhammadu Buhari to scrap the ongoing amnesty programme initiated by the late
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua for ex-militants of the Niger Delta.

Ayiri Emami, now a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Delta State and former Itsekiri warlord, stated that Buhari should also probe the operations of the Amnesty Programme. He said this in reaction to recent call by the Ijaw  Youth Council, demanding the continuation of the Amnesty Programme for Niger Delta youths.

 "If the Layman's understanding of the word amnesty is anything to go by, then it presupposes an arrangement where militants who genuinely turned in all their arms and ammunition are rehabilitated, re-oriented and trained with a view to reintegrating them to everyday societal living.

 "In the ordinary sense of it, any person or group that picks up arms in the name of struggle or agitation ought to have been treated as terrorists, hence nobody or group should take the gesture of the federal government for granted.

 "Amnesty should not be continuous; partially giving out money to youths from a particular ethnic nationality is wrong, sending some of them  abroad for training without any visible impact on the Niger Delta and the nation at large is counter-productive," he said.