Deputy Senate President Omo-Agege warns against scrapping amnesty programme

Deputy Senate President Senator Ovie Omo-Agege is warning the Federal Government to shelve alleged plans to scrap the Presidential Amnesty Programme for ex-agitators in the Niger Delta region.

In a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Media, and Publicity Mr. Yomi Odunuga, the Deputy Senate President described the move as premature and ill-timed, saying it will truncate the fragile peace in the region.

He states that he has been privy to all of the budgetary estimates passed both in the Eighth Assembly and in the Ninth Assembly but admits that “We have failed Mr President because we have not been able to hold to account those to whom these resources have been entrusted.

Senator Omo – Agege added that ” It is up to the people of the region who cried out to insist that interventionist agencies like NDDC and the Amnesty Program be created and properly funded to ask questions on the utilization of these funds.

The Presidential Amnesty Programme was introduced by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2009 for Niger Delta militants who had engaged in an armed struggle for a better deal in the oil-rich region.