By  Emma Ujah & Emma Amaize

Abuja residents woke up on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 with apprehension as news of an invasion of the quiet capital city by Niger Delta militants spread around town.  It did not matter to most people whether the “invaders” were actually militants or ex-militants; armed or otherwise.  The mere hearing of militants was enough to create panic in the city and it did.  

The ex-militants numbering over 1, 000 mobilized from Bayelsa and Delta states and were conveyed in 62 eighteen-seater buses travelled from their take-off point in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa capital, at about  10 am Tuesday, travelling throughout the night and arrived the Federal Capital City at dawn of Wednesday.

Security sources said the federal government had intelligence that the group was coming to storm Abuja, to protest alleged exclusion from the on-going phase two of the post amnesty programme.  However, for security reasons they were allowed to travel out of their Niger Delta enclave before  police made any attempt to stop them.

By the time the ex-militants arrived Gwagwalada, it was already about 5 am and they met a stiff resistance from the police.  There is a narrow bridge at the Southern end of Gwagwalada which links the satellite town to the main Abuja city.  The police simply blocked the narrow  road before that bridge with an armoured tank and that did the magic. Although 4 of the fully-loaded buses had slipped into the city before the police took position, the majority of the ex-militants were effectively prevented from entering the city of power.

Deputy Inspector General of Police in Charge Operations, Israel Ajao and the AIG Zone 7, Ivy Okoronkwo who led detachments of Policemen to Gwagwalada employed every tact necessary to ensure that the situation did not degenerate as members of the public feared that the fierce looking boys known to have engaged the Joint Task Force in the creeks for several years ,before the Presidential Amnesty declaration, could go wield, with the least provocation.

The duo commended the ex-militants for their orderliness noting that the police were there to ensure law and order.

 Mr. Ajao further told the ex-militants that with the manner the federal government had handled their complaints with a promise to look into it, they should politely return to their states and that the Police would provide escorts for them up to the outskirts of the FCT, which they obliged.

It the police had failed to stop the boys in Gwagwalada, the number along and their long convoy of 62 buses would have been enough to create an unprecedented confusion in Abuja. When it became evident that the boys could no longer realize their original objective of marching on Aso Rock and insisting on speaking with President Gooluck Jonathan, they turned the place into a rally ground of speeches by various self-style leaders of their various camps.

One of such ex-militant leaders, General Aso Tambo who claimed to be the Chairman of freedom fighters from Niger Delta
said, “We came to see Mr. President to discuss the second phase of implementation of the amnesty programme. Timi Alaibe has been playing with us. When we met with him, he asked us to come back in 3 weeks. We went to our camps and merged according to Alaibe wanted. We waited for all his promises and nothing happened. We are not criminals but freedom fighters”.

“From 1999 to date, the federal government created NDDC with the hope that the problem in the Niger delta will be curtailed; Niger Delta ministry was created by Obasanjo and till today, nothing is happening. Now the amnesty has been taken over by big men. That is why we are here to see the President”.

The Wednesday incident would have been totally unnecessary if all the militants had disarmed within the amnesty period which lasted from August 6 to October 4, 2009.

While several militant groups embraced the amnesty, surrendered their weapons and left the creeks, many other were skeptical and remained adamant.  The later were those who came to Abuja, claiming that they were neglected or that the post amnesty programme wasn’t working when in fact they are responsible for the distortions that the programme had earlier suffered.

Security documents sourced in Abuja indicated that more than 3, 515 names have been submitted to the military coordinators of the disarmament in various sectors as having disarmed between November last year and May, this year in Bayelsa and Delta states alone.  This group of militants have continue to make planning difficult for Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta and National Coordinator of the Post-Amnesty Programme, Mr. Timi Alaibe’s  team which is working within a specific budget.
Ex-militants who have been captured in the post amnesty programme receive a monthly allowance of N65, 000 monthly, which those who did not disarm earlier would want to enjoy.  But they should accept that their failure to surrender their arms was part of the delay in the entire process.

Reacting to the Wednesday “invasion” Mr. Alaibe said most of the persons in this ex-militant category, were those who were not originally captured as ex-militants that submitted their arms and ammunition because they were skeptical about the federal government intentions.

In a statement, signed by his media aide, Mr Henry Ugbolue  he said, “in view of the protest in Abuja today by persons said to be Niger Delta ex-militants who were excluded from the Presidential Amnesty programme, it has become expedient to clarify as follows.

 “That in the bid to stem the ugly tide of militancy and general insecurity in the Niger Delta, late President Yar’adua proclaimed, on 25th June 2009, an unconditional amnesty for militants in the Niger Delta who agree to lay down their arms and assemble at screening centre’s within 60 days for documentation. This offer of amnesty was unequivocally predicated on the willingness and readiness of the militants to give up all illegal arms in their possession, completely renounce militancy in who are their the leaders?