By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief
The Special Adviser  to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, has said that the prevailing peace in the Niger Delta could only be sustained if the international community as well as oil and gas multinationals join in funding the Amnesty Programme of the Federal Government.

A statement by the spokesman of the Amnesty Office, Mr. Henry Ugbolue, in Abuja, yesterday, said Kuku  who made the call at a just-concluded Chatham House, London, event,  also asked the United Kingdom to promptly issue visas to ex-militants billed for training in the UK.

He said that the vision of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to consolidate peace, safety and security in the Niger Delta using the instrumentalities of the Amnesty Programme is on course but warned that the programme may become burdensome and possibly derail if requisite support was not secured from countries who are currently benefitting from the rise in oil production in the Niger Delta.

His words, “it is true that because of the success of the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme peace has returned to the Niger Delta, oil production has risen from 700,000 barrels per day to 2.6 million barrel per day.

“But we must guard against being carried away. We must work together to sustain and consolidate this peace. The international community must key into the Amnesty Programme in more practical terms; the programme must not be seen as just a Nigerian programme especially given that crisis in the Niger Delta usually affects the global economy.