A group of former warlords in the Niger Delta have threatened to start bombing oil installations tomorrow.
The group, which issued a statement on Thursday, announced that it took the decision after a three-hour meeting held in the creeks of the region recently.
Two weeks ago, the militants had handed the government a 14-day ultimatum to meet some demands.
The demands included the payment of their monthly allowances and the recognition of some militants who embraced the amnesty programme by submitting their arms to the Kingsley Kuku-led Presidential Amnesty Committee. They had also demanded that the Federal Government should urgently probe the Presidential Amnesty Committee, describing it as a fraud.
"Except these modest requests are granted within the next 14 days, the Presidential Amnesty Committee should be ready for more face-offs and violent confrontations," the ex-militants had warned.
The statement issued by one General’ Keithy Sese, "the General Officer commanding all ex-militants on Phase 3,’’ claimed that the group had no choice but to resort to the use of violence, "the only language that the Nigerian government understands."
It warned "all multi-nationals and their expatriate workers to urgently relocate from the states of Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers as we will not be held responsible for anything that befalls people who refuse to listen to these modest directives."
The statement said that the meeting concluded that government officials in the Presidential Amnesty Committee were applying double standard in dealing with ex-militants from some ethnic nationalities.
The group said, "We reiterate our demand that the Federal Government should urgently probe the Presidential Amnesty Committee as we have facts and figures to show that several persons who are not even recognised as ex-militants are not only benefiting from the programme, but are today deciding the fate and destiny of known ex-fighters and patriots of the Niger Delta emancipation.
"Except the Federal Government directs the Presidential Amnesty Committee to urgently convene a stakeholders’ meeting where the amnesty programme will be given a more human face, we have no other choice, but to continue with these protests and targeted attacks that are going to be more deadly in the days ahead."
The ex-militants had demanded that the Federal Government should probe the Presidential Amnesty Committee, describing it as a fraud.
Key among their requests was that the Federal Government should "recognise and train’’ all ex-militants who had submitted their arms to the Joint Military Task Force.
They had also demanded that those who had already attended the training but were not being paid, should be paid regular monthly allowances.
Since the commencement of the amnesty programme, there has been a war of words between the ex-militants and their followers on the one hand and the government officials managing the amnesty programme.
Last month, the former militants, whose protests were initially peaceful, went on the rampage burning vehicles, including a distribution van belonging to a newspaper.
Kuku had consistently maintained that the protesters were never part of the over 20,000 ex-militants who were scheduled for training by the Federal Government. He had also declared that the aggrieved youths submitted their arms when the amnesty window had closed.
Kuku had said, "Disarmaments for inclusion in the programme ended on October 4, 2009. In view of this, we warn those who have formed the habit of transmitting records of purported post-amnesty disarmaments as well as dossiers of supposedly disarmed persons/camps to the Amnesty Office, to desist forthwith."
The Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr Timipre Sylva, whose state had been used by the militants as an operational base had said that the amnesty had been closed and that people desiring to be entered for the programme should wait for a fresh presidential proclamation.
"We were kind to the ex-militants in their last protest, but next time we are not going to be kind to them. They are criminals and we are going to treat them as criminals," Sylva had said.
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