General

Ex-militants block entrance to Akwa Ibom Govt House

by nadum 27 Apr , 2016  

Ex-Niger Delta militants, who were granted amnesty since 2012, on Tuesday blocked entrance to Akwa Ibom State Government House for more than four hours.

The militants, numbering over 200, arrived Willington Bassey Road, the road that leads to Government House in six Toyota Hiace buses, chanting songs and carrying placards with different inscriptions.

Some of the placards read, “We are tired of coming to this place; Please pay us our salaries; How can we be slaves in our state, and other states militants have been paid,” among others.

The ex-militants that blocked the entrance to the Government House, did not allow any vehicles entry or exit from the place for many hours.

A leader of the ex-militants in Akwa Ibom, Mr. Ebong Friday, said the state government did not include them in the Federal Government amnesty programme.

Friday threatened that they would not leave the Government House until the state governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, attend to them.

“Let the state government capture our names and send them to the Federal Government’s Amnesty Programme.

“All other states have been taken care of except Akwa Ibom militants,” he said.

Friday stated that since they laid down their arms in 2012 they have been neglected by the state government.

He added that their visit to Government House on Tuesday was the fourth time without the government attending to their complaints.

He revealed that prior to Tuesday protest, they had given state government two months to address their grievances but they have refused.

The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Murtala Mani, who addressed the former militants, appealed to them to remain calm and be law abiding while pressing for their demands.

Mani added that Nigerian government would not allow them to suffer after laying down their arms

The police commissioner assured them that he would take their complaints to the governor for action.

It was observed that as at the time of going to press the repentant militants were still barricading the entrance to Government House.

Punch…….

This page has been viewed 595 times


Share this article:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>