*Disarmament phase of amnesty over, says Kuku

By Emma Ujah & Samuel Oyadongha

Commuters plying the East-West Road, were, yesterday, stranded for over five hours as over 3,000 former militants barricaded the Mbiama section of the route in Rivers State, in protest over what they described as the refusal of the Federal Government to integrate them into amnesty programme.

However, Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and the Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, said no youth claiming to be a former militant would be admitted into the programme.

He said that further clamour for inclusion could derail the entire programme.

Kuku insisted that the period set by the Federal Government had lapsed.

The blockade caused serious gridlock extending to Kaiama on the Bayelsa axis and Ahoada on the Rivers flank, while some of the stranded commuters were forced to call off their journey.

Most of the passengers and traders going to the weekly Mbiama market were forced to trek long distance with loads on their heads.

The deployment of armed personnel from the Joint Task Force, JTF, and policemen from Bayelsa and Rivers States backed by armoured tanks could not scare the army of protesters who laid siege to the only route linking the South-South states of Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom.

Kuku said: “A closure has since been achieved in the disarmament phase of the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme. Very soon, the demobilisation component of the programme shall come to an end.”

According to him, a total of 26,358 persons (in two phases) accepted the offer of amnesty at the expiration of the stipulated deadline.

He added that in pur-suant to the commitment made to the former agita-tors, the Federal Govern-ment through the Amnesty Office had been engaged in demobilising, rehabilita-ting and reintegrating the Niger Delta amnesty beneficiaries.