Brave Dickson
All legal plans have been perfected by about 500 ex-Niger Delta agitators to drag the presidency and the office of the presidential amnesty programme to court over what they viewed as a betrayal of trust
The aggrieved ex-agitators who are equally asking for the immediate sack of the Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo for failing to document them, have contacted a law firm in Port Harcourt to enforce their rights in court.
The lead attorneys who spoke with our correspondent but refused his identity to be in print for reasons best known to him said the aggrieved ex-agitators have good grounds to challenge the federal government in court.
“For the fact that federal government promised them pardon, stipends and empowerment among others after surrendering their arms and renounced hostility which they (ex-agitators) have complied, government is bound by law to do the needful.
“It is sad to hear that some of their colleagues have been documented and are enjoying the benefits of the presidential amnesty programme while others are left behind.
“We are ready to challenge federal government in court on why about 500 ex-agitators are yet to be documented. We need explanation from government,” the lawyer said.
Giving reasons for approaching the court, the leader of the ex-agitators under the aegis of Phase Three Undocumented Ex-Niger Delta Agitators, Comrade Prince Eyeyon said all legitimate efforts to get them documented by the federal government has proved abortive.
Comrade Eyeyon said, “we have fully complied with all requirements given to us by the presidency. We have exercised enormous patience which has spanned into eight years now. We have written severally to the federal government and its relevant agencies. We are not happy with this ill-treatment government has subjected us to.
“We will not lose courage. We now want the court to prove itself as the last hope of the common man.”
It could be recalled that these set of undocumented ex-agitators were part of the ex-agitators from the Niger Delta region who surrendered their weapons in 2011 at the military barracks in Delta State.
