Monday, July 9, 2012

Ex-militants give president Goodluck Jonathan ultimatum


Niger Delta Ex militants Phase 3 has given President Goodluck Jonathan two weeks ultimatum to give its members their entitlements or they will return to the creeks and blow pipelines.

The national chairman of the group, which parades about 10,000 members in the nine oil producing states, Julius Joseph, said the Federal Government was yet to keep to its terms of agreement after they surrendered their arms two years ago.

He said members of his group had endured for so long. "If the government is not ready to give us our entitlements then they should return our arms. We are hungry; we want to go back to the creeks", Joseph stated.

"We have tried to reach the president through the Minister of Niger Delta, but the minister has refused to attend to us. We have tried different means of dialogue but nobody is listening to us. We even wrote a petition to the Senate President but there was no response.

"We are open to dialogue. But government doesn't want to dialogue with us. They want to dialogue with Boko Haram that is faceless. We are not faceless yet they don't to dialogue with us".

The group's vice chairman, Henry Gomerome, said the Federal Government was supposed to pay them a monthly salary of N65, 000.00, for over two years, saying nothing had been paid. He added: "It is for that reason that we blocked Lokoja road in December last year. We were actually heading for Abuja but we were stopped at Lokoja. We are going to block another major road if our demands are not met.

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