By Daniel Gumm

KOKO—THE Federal Government has been blamed for the alleged bias in the implementation of the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme, said to be implemented as if designed solely for a particular ethnic group in the region.’

Benin River Forum, after its meeting in Koko, Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, yesterday, explained that out of the 500 beneficiaries of Itsekiri extraction that were in the programme, less than 80 of such individuals have benefited from the training segment of the programme, and this is restricted to the academic component, while those that are for skills acquisition and women empowerment programmes have been neglected even in the face of the programme gravitating towards final conclusion.

Speaking to Vanguard after the group’s emergency meeting, National Coordinator of the Itsekiri youth group, Mr. Esimi Nanna, noted that the Itsekiri ethnic nation was worried over the alienation of majority of its youths who are beneficiaries of the programme as they have been subjected to by the present coordinator of the programme.

“The pattern adopted by the Federal Government in the appointment of coordinators since the inception of the post-amnesty programme where all the three persons so far appointed are from the same ethnic group indicates ethnic bias,” the group said.