By Bartholomew Madukwe

DELTA—A Niger Delta activist, Mr. Frank Akiefa, has called on the Federal Government and the House of Representatives to ignore the agitation by the Itsekiri ethnic group under the auspices of the Itsekiri National Youth Council, INYC, for inclusion into the amnesty programme, arguing that they were not former militants.

Akiefa, who spoke in Warri, Delta State, said: “In 2009, General Ayon, an Itsekiri, led some youths to surrender arms in Koko headquarters of Warri North Local Government Area to Navy Commodore Yaya, where they clearly said that they were not militants neither were they criminals but acquired the arms to protect the Itsekiri from attacks from neighbouring communities and should not be regarded as militants in any way.”

He added that the ceremony had in attendance, Gen. Bonny Gawei and other Ijaws as well as some Itsekiri youth leaders, including Omolubi, Ejele and David Tonwe and the then chairman of the council, Mr. Ebosa, stressing that their claim of non-inclusion in the amnesty was false and misleading.

Akiefa advised them against giving the Federal Government’s amnesty programme for ex-militants an ethnic colouration and wondered “why they waited for over three years before remembering that they were excluded. Where have they been?”

He said the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman Amnesty programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, had not short-changed any ethnic groups in the region in favour of the Ijaw, as speculated in some quarters.