By Emma Amaize

WARRI—Niger Delta Liberation Force, NDLF, founded by late John Togo, yesterday, urged the president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), to disregard the call by All Progressives Congress, APC, chieftain in Delta State, Chief Ayirimi Emami, to scrap the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, for ex-militants of the Niger Delta region.

Reacting to Emami’s call, spokesman of the group, Mark Anthony, said: “Our attention has been drawn to a publication by a youth leader from Itsekiri ethnic nationality, Chief Emami, calling on the incoming administration to scrap the amnesty programme on an alleged ground of wastage.

“We are not surprised to read such statement from a person like Emami, who benefited maximally from the Niger Delta crisis. He may have been wrongly counselled to join enemies of the Niger Delta to call on Buhari to scrap the amnesty programme.”

But Chief Emami, maintained his position, saying, “I insist that the call for sustenance of amnesty for ex-militants is unnecessary, as the gesture had turned out to be a continuous/partial giving out of money to youths from a particular ethnic nationality and sending them abroad for training without any visible impact on the Niger Delta and the nation at large.”