FG, others move to re-integrate 30,000 Niger Delta ex-agitators

…Amnesty programme plans entrepreneurial revolution

THE presidency has commenced the third and final phase of United Nations-supervised Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of 30,000 Niger Delta ex-agitators with the flag-off of the Entrepreneurial Revolution for Sustainable Peace on November 7, 2018 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

To underscore its seriousness, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), with some financial and tertiary institutions have been brought into the picture to enable the ex-agitators get certified and exit as employers and ensure peace in the region.

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, told journalists at an interactive session on Wednesday: “On assumption of office in March 2018, I had a clear mandate: to re-tool the programme, to make it more robust and impactful for the enlisted ex-agitators in the Niger Delta, with the ultimate goal of achieving sustainable peace and development in all facets of the region.”

Prof. Dokubo, who was represented by his Special Assistant, Media, Murphy Ganagana, added: “Determined to facilitate job placement for beneficiaries, we have created a Job Placement and International Development Partners Engagement Unit (JPIDPEU) since May 2. So far, the unit has profiled 28 delegates for underwater welding jobs in oil servicing companies, 100 for civil service jobs and 10 others for aviation crop spray pilot jobs. It has also concluded profiling of 25 delegates for catering services, hotel and fast food jobs and 75 for other job opportunities. This is just the beginning of an action plan of the Post Training Engagement and Job Placement units of the Amnesty Office for the next two years.

The programme sponsors students, who had earlier protested non-payment of their tuition and allowances, in a private tertiary institution in Edo State.

It disclosed yesterday in Benin City that its Power and Energy Vocational Centre in Bomadi, Delta State, would soon commence operation.

“The Office of the Amnesty Programme is soon to activate the Oil and Gas Vocational Training Centre, Agadagba in Ondo State, in order to provide training for some ex-Niger Delta agitators who are yet to be placed in either vocational training facilities or deployed for formal education,” Dokubo added.