The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has warned the Federal Government against alleged clandestine moves to jettison the Amnesty Programme, saying it will engender dare consequences.
President IYC, worldwide, Pereotubo Oweilaemi, Esq., gave the warning in a statement signed and made available on Saturday.
He said the Ijaw youths’ body has been “reliably informed that there are clandestine moves by power players within the corridors of power at the presidency to abruptly terminate the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
“The move, if materialised by the enemies of peace, will be viewed as an ethnophobic propensity of the present government against the Niger Delta people,” he averred.
Oweilaemi went memory lane how the late President Umaru Yar’Adua came up with the programme and the terms of reference guiding the programme.
According to him, “in case the plotters of the evil coup fail to know, the Amnesty Programme is a mutual agreement between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Niger Delta people.
“The bargain is for the agitators to lay down their arms to accept the offer of Presidential Amnesty which has hitherto outlined terms and conditions to be complied with by both sides.
“The Amnesty Programme is a well-thought-out developmental programme of the then government of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua with different segments.
“The Programme was phased into three segments which are: Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration for the first segment; Rehabilitation for the second segment while Strategic Implementation Work Plan (SIWP) for the third segment.
“Granted that the first segment has successfully been carried out. However, we are still in the second segment which is the rehabilitation process.
“Engaging the youths on vocational training or sending people to school as well as the empowerment programmes are all part of the rehabilitation processes.
“There is no time limit as to when the Programme will be terminated especially when all the segments have not been executed.
