PRESIDENT Umaru Musa Yar'Adua yesterday met with the leader of the Rivers State-based Niger Delta Vigilante and Patriotic Force (NDVPF), Ateke Tom, with a pledge by the militant leader to surrender his weapons immediately he gets back to his base.
President Yar'Adua described the acceptance of amnesty by Ateke Tom as "my 49th Independence anniversary gift. And it is one gift which I cherish because I want peace and development for the Niger Delta."
The President pledged to tackle the issue of development and other solutions to the problems in the Niger Delta, noting that in about five years from now, the region will be so massively developed that "you (Tom) will thank God that you decided to embrace amnesty today."
Tom had been flown from his base by helicopter to Abuja through the Owerri Airport early yesterday for the meeting.
President Yar'Adua had on September 13, 2009 authorised the Minister of Defence and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Committee, Maj.-Gen. Godwin Abbe (rtd), chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih and the Honorary Presidential Adviser on the Niger Delta, Mr. Timi Alaibe, to visit the camps of militants in the Niger Delta as confidence-building measure to allay their fears and assure them of the genuineness of the Federal Government amnesty.
The presidential delegation, among others, met with Tom at his Camp 4 in Rivers State. At the meeting, Tom, among other requests, asked for audience with President Yar'Adua.
Among the delegation of Tom were his lawyer and former member of the House of Representatives, Chief Uche Onyeagocha; executive director of Grassroots Initiative for Peace and Democracy and cousin of Tom, Akinada Richard; Tom's militant commanders - Friday Ituekoha, Opia Joshua, Felix Itwida, Rowland and Gilbert Amos.
According to Yar'Adua at the event, which was held at the First Lady Conference Room of the Presidential Villa, Abuja: "I want to say that the amnesty is not an end in itself but a means to an end. It is a means to peacefully and lovingly - with brotherly understanding - bringing to an end all insurrection and misunderstanding between brothers. It is a means to bringing stable peace and security to the Niger Delta region. It is a means of making the two of us work together to ensure that our youth do not take up arms again. It has always pained me to see our brothers and sisters - Nigerians - taking up arms against fellow Nigerians and to live in the creeks under very difficult situations and conditions because of such issues that agitated their minds. But by the grace of God and the kind heart and the goodwill you have brought to this amnesty programme, this is coming to an end.
"You may not know what you are doing for your people and the nation now. It will become evident in the future as we continue with the peace and security in the Niger Delta region. In a few years, five years or so, you will see the kind of development that would have taken place, then you will thank God that you decided to take advantage of this amnesty so that together we join hands to work diligently for the welfare and well-being of our people. This administration understands the challenges of the Niger Delta region and the challenges people are facing. And that is why from the beginning I made Niger Delta a top priority in our seven-point agenda.
"We will work together to ensure that youths in the Niger Delta have meaningful lives through the kind of programmes we will evoke. We will train them, help them to establish businesses. Those who want to further their education to whatever level, we will help them to do that to ensure that each and everyone of them has a career and a life to be proud of, and that he would stand to be proud of himself, his family and his country. And he would be proud that he is a Nigerian."
President Yar'Adua called on "other militant leaders who have not yet taken advantage of this amnesty programme to do so. This is because I want us to work together into the post amnesty period. I am hoping that in the remaining three days, October 4, the remaining militant leaders will please consider and follow the example of Ateke Tom so that if they do that, after October 4, we'll sit down with them and discuss as brothers the issues and the kind of programmes that will help in rehabilitation and reintegration of their followers and other militants that are under them so that together we plan a future for them, a future they will be proud of. That is one of the things we will do.
"The other thing is to look at the problems that caused the agitation in the Niger Delta in the first place. These are problems that are well known for a very long time. We will not just say you have to drop your arms and so you go. No. We will sit to find solutions to what problems that have made you to take arms against your state. Then, you will say these are the problems. We will work out the solutions together with you, then we go ahead to implement them and you also participate in implementing the solutions to these problems. That is the essence of this amnesty, to stop the violence. It is also to unite together with you into the future, to solve other problems so that the issues of militancy and grievances will be put behind us as issues."
On Tom's request for a private audience, Yar'Adua, who immediately after the meeting left for his home state of Katsina, promised to grant private audience to the militant leaders on Saturday, telling him "you have demonstrated abiding faith in this nation. And that is because you believe this administration will do justice to your demands and well-being."
Ateke Tom, who spoke in pidgin English told the President: "Immediately you announce the amnesty, I be the first person wey embrace the amnesty because I like the amnesty. The things wey we talk wey dey worry us, make una try do am for us because we dey suffer for Niger Delta. And we believe you. Me particularly, I believe you well well. I know say the things dem wey you promise you go fit do am for us. But the people wey no fit endure am, na him no fit endure am. So, I thank you very well for this amnesty. Make you try help us we the Ijaw people. Try commot us from this problem wey we dey get. Our arms, we go drop am. Like me, I don promise I go drop my arms. Na im make I say make I come see you. Take all our problems and try solve am for us. That is why I dey here today."
At the event were Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, Gen. Abbe, Chief of Defence Staff; Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike; Alaibe, Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Sarki Muktar (rtd) and the Director General of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Dr. Magnus Kpakol.
Meanwhile, three days to the expiration of the amnesty deadline, the umbrella youth body in the region, Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), yesterday called for an extension by at least 90 more days to enable militants take full advantage of the programme.
Speaking to journalists in Benin yesterday, the president of the council, Chris Ekiyor, said militants in the area had been sceptical of the programme but were now beginning to have confidence in it hence, their request for extension of time.
He, however, alleged lack of commitment on the part of the Federal Government to bringing development to the area alongside the amnesty. "Use of guns has outlived its time-frame, what we need now is non-violent direct action ... unfortunately the government is more concerned about mopping up the arms than responding to the amnesty they are doing."
Ekiyor also called on the Federal Government to extend the dis-armament programme to other parts of the country where there have also been violent dimension to their agitation.
He said so far, the people of the area still doubt the sincerity of government to bring genuine development to the area but he warned that failure of government to sincerely follow the dis-armament programme could lead to a more violent struggle that the government may not be able to curtail.
He said rather than the process the Federal Government had adopted, the IYC had long ago recommended a process that would lead to total dis-armament side by side massive development of the Niger Delta region through a strategy he called DRRD (Disengagement, Re-orientation, Reintegration, Disarmament.)
But the amnesty programme may be threatened if the accusation by a group, the Niger Delta Professionals for Development (NIDPRODEV), is anything to go by.
In statement yesterday by Mr. Joel Bisina, the Founder/Executive Director of NIDPRODEV, he alleged that men of the Military Task Force were into brazen extortion of money and dehumanising treatment of persons plying the waterways of the Niger Delta.
Bisina disclosed that hapless people are daily being forced to part with their hard-earned money before being allowed passage on the Delta
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