To curb the worsening insecurity, President Bola Tinubu has been enjoined to emulate the late President Umaru Yar’Adua by granting amnesty to the insurgents, bandits and ethnic militias currently destabilising the country. This was contained in a statement by a leader of ex-Niger Delta agitators, Eshanakpe Israel, a.k.a. Akpodoro.
In the statement, Akpodoro who holds the honorary title of the Mayor of Urhoboland said it has become imperative for the Federal Government to adopt a carrot-and-stick approach to resolve the security challenge because military might alone would not be enough to tackle it.
He said a new amnesty programme coordinated by state governors should be instituted to get thousands of criminal elements in every state to lay down their arms and become part of the community policing structure in their respective domains. This, he added, “is because it is the best approach to stem the tide of insecurity currently ravaging the coup try”.
Akpodoro said the repentant armed men would be trained by the government under the proposed new amnesty programme and paid stipends monthly for several years “until they are morally fit to eke out a living”. He added that the same beneficiaries of the programme would in turn be conscripted into civilian components of the state security apparatus.
He said: “Granting amnesty to repentant bandits, insurgents, hostage takers and other sundry criminals will automatically cut down the crime rate in the country and this can begin with a national summit of critical stakeholders on national security to map the strategies for the success of the proposed amnesty programme.”
Akpodoro said the late Yar’Adua would be remembered for his sincerity and boldness in declaring the Presidential Amnesty for the Niger Delta militants. He added: “Little did the nation know that the non-kinetic approach could stem the tide of the raging military onslaught that was fast metamorphosing into full-blown war.
“Giving the then insurgents shield was the terrain (creeks), which the alien forces couldn’t navigate, giving the militants more impetus to launch an offensive on the oil and gas facilities then. During those confrontations, the militants broke into camps feeding their central command information and claiming victory most of the time. Jomo Gbomo was handy at every point in time to announce every progress made by the rag-tag militias.
“It was an era marked by ethnic agitations and responses from the government at the time. Then, the military reaction was that of kinetic approach which in every sense of it wasn’t successful as it ended in no victor no vanquish at the declaration of the amnesty programme.”
Akpodoro called on President Tinubu to liaise with state governments to grant amnesty to all criminal elements in the country under the national security architecture. He urged the various levels of government to put security votes to use effectively, adding that it is not meant to be pocketed by the helmsmen at the states.
The ex-militant leader said he has assisted the Federal Government several times in the past to quell militancy in the Niger Delta and that he is ready to work with the current administration in any capacity to bring peace to the region and the country in general.
He said hardened criminals have taken over the entire geographical space of the country with different appellations and that each state is host to about five thousand such suspected criminals. Against this background, he said state governments must bear part of the financial burden of the proposed amnesty.
He said most criminals are willing to drop their arms if they are given the assurance of their safety and protection by the authorities. He said: “Give them amnesty and watch kidnappers, insurgents and bandits drop their arms.
“The governors must be made to work with the central government by putting their security votes into action. We as a people have complained for too long. Enough is enough for lamentations, and this is the only seeming way to carry everybody along in our national drive to end security threats.
“Drop your arms and enjoy your stipend from the amnesty programme. Our forests harbour criminals, and only repentant criminals can uproot them. Please send them to the creeks, forests, and highways as we see in both the Kogi and Edo axis of our highways and see crimes reduced drastically. Disarmament and rehabilitation are the way out of our security quagmire.”
He urged the Federal Government to involve the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the re-orientation of the youth population, to tinker with their value system. He added: “The political elites, too, would have to be challenged to parade wealth less than they do so as not to inadvertently provoke the younger generations to crimes.”
Going further, the mayor said he would offer himself for such a national assignment where he will lead, manage, and coordinate repentant criminals under the new amnesty programme.
