Ex-militants Threaten Attack on Oil Installations over Allowances

Police Headquarters

by: James Sowole

Some groups of ex-militants in Delta State have threatened to go back to the creeks and attack oil installations if the federal government and the Amnesty Office failed to pay the backlogs of allowances  allegedly owed them since 2010 within two weeks.

The threat of the ex-agitators was contained in a communiqué signed by Eric O. Ajagidi, I.D number C01/B11/A1/14098, Soroh Dorwei Travel, C01/B11/B1/14205, Prince Degbe Jonah, C01/B11/B1/14127 all in Tompolo’s camp with Tomukebiri  D. Franklyn, C01/B11/A1/14068, Ikiyan Roland Owei, C03/B10/E2/13477, Arthur Fenetobour Harvest, V02/B10/D5/13375 from the Ezekiel’s camp and made available to journalists in Akure, Ondo State.

According to the communiqué,  the ex-militants lamented that they have been facing serious  hardship and frustrations for the past three years over the unpaid allowance, saying all efforts to resolve the issue had not  yielded positive result.

They lamented that after embracing  amnesty and undergoing non-violence training at Obubra in Cross River State with others being trained outside the country, their monthly allowances have not been remitted to their individuals bank accounts.

The ex-militants, therefore, threatened to use violent approaches to pursue their demands, threatening to  blow off oil installations in the state if the concerned authorities did not correct the anomaly within the stipulated period of two weeks.

The communique read: “We agreed to surrender arms and ammunition because we only want to be good and law abiding citizens, we embraced the amnesty programme of the government.

“We expect that the government should always keep to its words. We are disappointed that after the amnesty programme, where most of us were taken out of the country and others trained within the country, the federal government has refused to pay our allowances.

“What do they expect us to do? How do they expect us to live? We are giving the federal government 14 days to pay all our outstanding allowances or we will go back to the creeks and start blowing up oil pipes.”