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BUHARI ADVISED TO SUSTAIN AMNESTY PROGRAMME

Buhari advised to sustain amnesty programme


By Oriaifoh Godwins


The need for the amnesty programme for the Niger Delta agitators to be sustained by the All Progressives Congress, APC administration has been
Hon. Kingsley Kuku
emphasised. This emphasis was made by the Senior Special Assistant, SSA, on Niger Delta Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty programme, Honourable Kingsley Kuku while addressing the press in Abuja.

Explaining the landmarks of the presidential amnesty programme, Kuku said, 30,000 ex agitators have so far graduated from different disciplines and have been certificated, including the 67 licenced commercial pilots, while others are currently undergoing one form of training or the other in different institutions in several countries including the United States and the United Kingdom. These he added has made the Niger Delta area relatively peaceful compared to what it was during the pre amnesty period.

Corroborating Kuku’s assertion, one of the beneficiaries of the programme, Mr Tarila Nathan Dressman, who is currently a chemical technician with Impact Chemical Technologies, Texas, USA, said if not for the amnesty programme, he would have been useless to himself and a nuisance to the country in spite of the fact that he had a bachelors degree at the time he was in the creeks with the Niger Delta agitators, but today, through the amnesty programme, he has not only been able to obtain a masters degree, but has also secured a befitting job with a petrochemical firm; saying, he plans to work out ways of the company he works with, setting up a subsidiary in Nigeria for the benefit of the country as well as to create employment for other less privileged youths in the country.

On the issue of granting amnesty to Boko Haran insurgents, Hon, Kuku who has always been in support of granting amnesty to Boko Haram insurgents, said those that are sympathetic to the cause of the insurgents, as well as the members of Boko Haram that are currently being held by security agents can be used to find a lasting solution to the Boko Haram problem if these sets of people are properly managed and their psyche worked on.

Kuku also used the opportunity to call on the federal government to fulfill the promises they made to the people of the Niger Delta with respect to the provision of infrastructure, which was one of the reasons for the agitation.

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