By Samuel Oyadongha
Yenagoa- Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and the Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, has commended the clarification by the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta codenamed Operation Restore Hope, that persons it received arms from in the region after October 4, 2009 were not promised inclusion in the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

The Amnesty Office, in a statement by its Head, Media and Communica-tion, Mr. Henry Ugbolue, said: “Mr. Kuku is gladdened by the section of the JTF’s statement, which rightly said that ‘the grant of amnesty was a Presidential prerogative. The JTF is not oblivious of this fact. Therefore it could not have proceeded to promise disarming persons and granting amnesty’.”

he position of the Joint Task Force tallies with the Special Adviser, who had earlier said that the disarmament for inclusion in the amnesty programme ended on October 4, 2009.

The statement said:“This position tallies clearly with Mr. Kuku’s often held position that the JTF is statutorily empowered to mop up illegal arms in the Niger Delta but that such does not qualify the disarmed person or persons for inclusion in the amnesty programme.

“Disarmaments for inclusion in the programme ended on October 4, 2009. In view of this clearer position by the JTF, Mr. Kuku warn persons who have formed the habit of transmitting records of purported post-amnesty disarmaments as well as dossiers of supposedly disarmed persons/camps to the Amnesty Office, to desist forthwith.”