By Emma Amaize

WARRI-TWELVE days to the expiration of the October 4 deadline by the Federal Government for militants to accept amnesty and surrender arms, the government has kept mute on the call by militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, that it should extend the deadline for proper disarmament exercise to be carried out.

Vanguard learnt yesterday that since September 13 when the Minister of Defence, Major General Godwin Abbe (rtd), visited Tompolo in company of the Delta State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, former chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, he has not sent word back on the position of the Presidency.

Though he maintained at the meeting that the October 4 deadline was sacrosanct, Chief Anenih prevailed on him to have a broad view of the matter, following the complaint of Tompolo, who is a key participant in the amnesty programme, that more time was needed to disarm his boys who were scattered in the creeks of the region with arms.

The tentative agreement was that a meeting would be facilitated for Tompolo to meet with Mr. President to tell him the reasons the October 4 date was not feasible, but silence had been the word from Abbe since the penultimate Sunday meeting.

Going by the Olympian posture of Major General Abbe at the meeting and afterwards, the fear at the moment is that the amnesty programme, which has made a headway following its acceptance by some notable militants, including the erstwhile MEND Commander, Victor Ben, alias “General” Boyloaf may run into a storm.

The Minister formally made contact with Tompolo only 21 days or so to the expiration of the 60-day amnesty programme of the Federal Government, that is halfway or so into the programme, which is poor in itself, and yet, he does not want to listen to the factors that may undermine the success of the very important project.

As Tompolo told the delegation, he had no quarrel with accepting amnesty, his worry is that he has a lot of boys out there with arms in the creeks and they have not been debriefed to return the arms with them.

He said he needed more time since he just came out from hiding to contact them and even get Major-General Abbe and his team to come and talk to them on why they should accept amnesty and drop their arms.

Tompolo’s suggestion is seen by close observers of the amnesty programme as a wise approach that would make the arms surrender a resounding success. Why is Major-General Abbe hesitant to request President Umaru Yar’Adua to extend the October 4 deadline if it was obvious that the date was not feasible? What is so sacrosanct about the date that it cannot be shifted? Is it the date that should matter or the success of the programme?