By Emma Amaize & John Ighodaro

CALABAR—THE Federal Government, yesterday, announced fresh regulations for the next batch of ex-militants who are due in camp before the end of this month to undergo non-violence training at Obubra in Cross-River State.
Special Adviser to the President on Niger-Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Committee on Post-Amnesty, Mr. Timi Alaibe who visited the Obubra training camp to inspect the construction works said part of the new rules was that ex-militants would now be confined to the camp throughout the duration of their training.

He also said ex-militants coming for training would be transported from their respective states by the Committee in branded buses and back to their states after the training programme to avoid the kind of lapses that were observed in the pilot phase with 2,000 ex-militants.

Alaibe who also disclosed that the next batch of ex-militants would be reduced from 2,000 to 600,  asserted that under the new rules, it would be illegal for ex-militants to leave the training camp without authority.

He added that a separate hostel had been allocated to female ex-militants, who were most likely to be trained in one batch.

Chairman of Obubra local government, Mr. Nicholas Ayuwa, and the paramount ruler of Obubra, HRH, Clement Ewona, had while exchanging views with Alaibe, who paid them courtesy calls, appealed to the Federal Government to regulate activities of the ex-militants.

Ayuwa, whose wife was allegedly kidnapped by ex-militants, sometime ago, specifically appealed that the repentant fighters be confined to the camp where they could listen to the lectures and remain there until their trainers certified them fit to mingle with the people.

On his part, the royal father told Alaibe: “You have to help to advise them (ex-militants) that they should not do things that will make my people to be afraid.”

Ewona said sveral allegations were made against the ex-militants in the first batch, adding that when he investigated, he found out that some were true and others false.

The Divisional Police Officer for Obubra, Mr. Joe Robert said the police envisaged the contradictory behaviour of the ex-militants, taking into consideration the kind of people they were, adding: “We were prepared to ensure that they are confined to the camp.”

He, nonetheless, dismissed the incidence of rape that was reported by the media, saying: “Nobody was raped. It was a general rumour.”

Alaibe admitted that the post-amnesty committee faced a lot of challenges in the pilot training, including unruly behaviour of some of the participants and thanked the community for accommodating them despite the demonstrations.

His words: “We have taken a look at the infrastructural details. For example, the perimeter fence to ensure that we fence up properly the expanse of land measured at 14 hectares to ensure that any participant of our programme that comes in there does not come out until after the programme.

“We are going to transport every participant from the state that they will be coming from in branded buses into that facility and it is going to be gated and when they finish after two weeks, they will be transported out.

We have taken note of that to ensure that there will be efficiency in the service delivery and nobody comes out to do anything against the community or against the peace and progress of this community.”

On female ex-militants, Alaibe said: “We have allocated a particular hostel for female ex-combatants. We have deliberately ensured that the programme will take the female combatants at once.”

Alaibe said the training programme in Obubra was a national activity, a revolution and a national challenge, adding: “It is important for all stakeholders to be involved in the process, assist this project to work. Such activities never happened in Nigeria before.

That is why there is a whole lot of cynicism and you can see the result of the first batch. People thought it was not going to work, but, at the end of the day, it worked. When you are building a team management foundation, you will have this type of challenges even in the civilized economy like Heathrow Terminal Five.

“When it started, there were 40,000 flights flying around the world, 15 persons were missing, bags that were going to America were in China, these were the challenges at Heathrow Terminal Five. Today, we are all enjoying Heathrow Terminal Five, this is the kind of challenge we are facing.”