FG TO CONTINUE N65, 000 MONTHLY PAYMENTS TO EX-MILITANTS

Presidential Amnesty Office on Tuesday insisted that it would continue to pay
former Niger Delta militants their N65,000 monthly stipends despite the threat
by Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to resume hostility
following the conviction of Henry Okah by a South African court.

Head of Media and Communications,
Daniel Alabrah, told Daily
Independent in Abuja,
that payments to ex-militants are statutory and therefore could not be stopped
by the office.

He said: “We are doing our own duty
to implement the amnesty programme, but if they (ex-militants) renege, then
they are the ones to answer questions.

“We cannot stop paying them because
we have told them that for the period that the amnesty programme would run we
will pay every person that is entitled to the stipend.

“So, if they around to criticise the
government, the onus is on them to say why they doing so.

“We are not going to call them
names, but government will continue to be diplomatic because the Niger Delta
issue is very sensitive whether we like it or not.

“If the programme is going to fail,
it should not be from our own side maybe because we did not have money to pay
them.

“The fact remains that the amnesty
office has not defaulted in any way in terms of paying them the stipends”, he
added.

Source: Daily Independent