Over 200 repentant Niger Delta militants staged a peaceful protest, accusing the federal government of allegedly flouting the amnesty deal sealed with the ex-agitators which compelled them to drop their arms to embrace peace in 2009.
Under the aegis of Ukanafun Freedom Fighters (UFF) led by its coordinator, Udom Ebetor, the protesters who were armed with placards of varying inscriptions laid siege to the headquarters of Ukanafun local government area headquarters at Ikot Akpankuk, Akwa Ibom State.
The demanded urgent federal government’s intervention to address issues of welfare, jobs and empowerment, as enshrined in the amnesty document.
“The federal government has failed to keep its words in training and empowering the ex-militants to become economically self-reliant”, one of the placards read.
They also alleged that “The ex-militants from Akwa Ibom axis were seen as strangers by other militants from a certain tribe and discriminate against by some officials in the amnesty office.”
Ebetor who in 2009 led other militants under the umbrella of the Supreme Council of Niger State (SUCOND) to surrender arms, recalled that he had mentioned in July 2009 that “no fewer than 500 members of the group were still in bushes owing to their scepticism of the federal government’s sincerity towards the amnesty programme.”
It was gathered that a chunk of those protesting at the Ukanafun council headquarters were those who initially refused to lay down their arms over fears that the federal government might not keep to its terms of negotiating for the ceasefire deal.
Lamenting the plight faced by the ex-militants from Akwa Ibom, Ebetor lamented that “while others are benefitting, some of our leaders at the local and state levels are busy talking while their people are suffering.”
Denying that he was neither a cultist nor ever involved in criminal activities, Ebetor, who said he had gone for training in Vietnam under the amnesty programme advised the protesters on the gains of peaceful protest and non-involvement in criminal activities, including indulgence in drug abuse.
He explained that “the protest is as a result of the people being pushed to the wall, and that it serves as a call to the federal government to do the needful before the issue get escalated.”
Addressing the protesters on behalf of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Paul Mel Udoh, the Community Orientation and Mobilisation Officer (COMO) for Ukanafun LGA, promised to transmit their demands to Abuja, assuring that “the federal government will respond in a way to assuage your grievances.”
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