Over 200 repentant Niger Delta militants have staged a peaceful protest, accusing the federal government of flouting the amnesty deal it signed 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 the coordinator, Udom Ebetor, the protesters, who were armed with placards of varying inscriptions, laid siege to the Ukanafun local government area headquarters at Ikot Akpankuk, Akwa Ibom State, demanding urgent federal government intervention to address the core issues of welfare, jobs, and empowerment, as enshrined in the amnesty document.
“The federal government has failed to keep its word 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 discriminated against by some officials in the amnesty office.”
Ebetor, who, in 2009, led other militants under the umbrella of the Supreme Council of Niger Delta (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 many of those protesting at the Ukanafun council headquarters initially refused to lay down their arms because they feared the federal government would not keep to its terms of negotiating 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 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 escalates.”
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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