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A’Ibom militants demand sack of PAP’s interim administrator
By Bassey Anthony, Uyo
Militants in Akwa Ibom have demanded the immediate sack of the interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Col. Milland Dixion Dikio(retd) and his replacement with a substantive special adviser/coordinator.
They also asked for the removal of the supervisory and oversight powers of the programme from the Office of the National Security Adviser and total restructuring of the PAP to enable it fulfill its statutory mandate.
The agitators under the aegis of Unyek Isong, the supreme council for Akwa Ibom militants, accused Dikio of neglecting their welfare and excluding them from activities of the programme.
In a statement by ‘General’ Dede Udofia and ‘Major’ Ibanga Ekeng in Uyo on Monday, the agitators complained they have been marginalised and excluded from meetings, training and empowerment packages of the PAP.
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”Since the present government came into power, successive administrations of the Amnesty Programme under the supervision of the National Security Adviser have the Amnesty Programme to their personal investment project leaving some of the ex-militants particularly those from our state neglected and marginalised.
”We have observed the continued exclusion of these affected ex-militants from local and overseas training programmes, stoppage of monthly stipends of over 100 ex-militants from Akwa Ibom state since 2010 and eventual removal of their names from the Amnesty payroll without any cogent reason,” the statement reads in part.
According to them, the PAP was structured and run in such a way that favours their colleagues in Rivers, Bayelsa and Ondo states while the rest from other states are treated as second class ex-militants.
They threatened to ‘react’ if the federal government fails to accede to their demands.
