Expdonaloaded News; Ex-MEND leaders back FG on Amnesty probe

Leaders of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) yesterday threw their weight behind the ongoing probe and verification exercise being conducted by the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Implementation Committee, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (retd), into the numbers of former militants benefitting from the programme.Led by Wilson Reuben a.k.a General Pastor Reuben, the former MEND leaders, said though some groups had expressed concern over the exercise, the probe would help sanitize and strengthen the programme and iron out issues of inclusion of those purportedly disarmed under the third phase of the programme.
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The former militant leaders under the aegis of the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative (LPCDI), in a statement signed by Reuben, expressed satisfaction over the ongoing probe and the verification exercise initiated by Boroh.
According to them, the verification exercise would determine genuine beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), particularly those that formed the third phase of the programme.
The statement read in part: “We the former agitators wish to let Brigadier General Paul Boroh to know that he has our full backing on this bold initiative and he should not be deterred in his mandate of implementing the PAP to its latter.
We urge Boroh to rally round the leadership of former agitators for inputs by having a meeting with Ebikabowei Victor-Ben aka General Boyloaf and others on how best to handle the impasse caused due to the delay in the payment of stipends and allowances among other lingering issues being faced by those in foreign institutions.
“We urge the chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Implementation Committee to look into the issue N65,000 being received by the leaders because the amount is too small compared to the burden they have to shoulder from their followers. We thank President Muhammadu Buhari for keeping his word on his keen concern in the smooth and efficient running of the Amnesty Programme with a credible character like Boroh as he unfolds other agenda for the Niger Delta.”