Ex-militants threaten violence over unpaid three-month allowances

No fewer than 500 ex-militants under the Presidential Amnesty Programme have vowed to unleash mayhem in the Niger Delta region following their alleged exclusion from payment of three-month allowances by the Amnesty Office. The former militants said they would breach the peace in the region if the Coordinator of PAP, Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh (retd.), failed to pay them after five days. The aggrieved ex-militants said after a meeting in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, on Monday, that they would begin their showdown by blocking the East-West Road, a major gateway to other parts of the country from the South-South. They explained that when Boroh took over the office, he paid them two out of their five months outstanding allowances. They, however, said their names were excluded from the list when the office paid the three months outstanding allowances, accusing the management of PAP of diverting their money. One of the ex-militants, Bipelede Enere, said in last two weeks, the Amnesty Office paid some of their boys in the third phase of the amnesty programme their three months allowances. He, however, said when the authorities paid the money, they didn’t pay over 500 of them under the Third Phase. Ekere said, “They have not told us the reason we have not been paid. As I speak with you, I have not been paid my three months allowances but when they paid the two months some months ago, we received the money. “We don’t want them to push us to the point where we would take drastic action that would make anybody feel we want to fight against the state. That is why we are using this medium to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to advise the leadership of the amnesty programme to pay us our money. “If they fail to pay us our monthly allowance from now till Tuesday, we would go out en masse to block the East-West Road on Wednesday.” Also speaking, another ex-militant, who gave his name only as Kpaikpai, said their children were out of schools because of non-payment of their allowances. He said, “My children can no longer go to school because they have refused to pay us our allowances. With the flood that have taken over some of our communities and our farmlands, our only means of livelihood have been taken over by the flood. “So, we are using this medium to send a signal to Boroh that if he fails to pay the money from now till Tuesday, we will not rest, we will continue to protest until our allowances are paid.”