Ex-Niger Delta militants threaten protest over unpaid stipends

– Under the 2009 amnesty programme deal, each former militant was is to be paid N65,000 monthly apart from training

– But for a while now, the militants claim they have not been paid while the amnesty office says it its operations are hindered by lack of funds

Just weeks after Vice President Yemi Osinbajo visited many states in the Niger Delta region as part of the federal government’s plan to douse tension in the restive area, former militants are said to be brewing for a protest.

The former militants threatened the federal government with a protest over their unpaid stipends as granted under the 2009 amnesty programme.

Vanguard quotes the former militants as saying in a statement: “We are calling for the immediate release of the balance sum of the 2016 supplementary budgetary allocation…to avert any situation that will warrant beneficiaries of the programme going to the streets to protest and barricade roads.”

The government recently announced that the negotiation with the stakeholders in the Niger Delta had increased oil output.

Under the amnesty programme, the former militants earned N65,000 each monthly plus job training.

However, the programme is currently hindered by lack of funding, according to head of the programme, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh.