Senate defends amnesty for militants

Ayodele Adesanmi, Abuja - 26.06.2009

THE Senate, on Thursday; in Abuja, said the unconditional amnesty and pardons granted Niger Delta militants by President Umaru Yar’Adua was in the interest of the people of the country.

It disclosed that the recent development in the region deserved a sharper focus. The Chairman Senate Committee on Information, Senator Ayogu Eze, stated that “we are saddened by the development and this also brings into sharper focus the need for us to design a more robust answer to happenings in the Niger Delta.”

Senator Eze argued that happenings in the region had brought into perspective the amnesty initiative of President Yar’Adua, because in offering that initiative, the President was guarded by the interest of Nigerians.

According to him, “I think Niger Delta problem has become like a sore thumb and unless we do something about it, the rest of the fingers will not be at peace.

“ In fact, the whole situation commends itself to the attention of the whole country, the legislature; the executive and the judiciary and we must strategise together; we must go back to the Niger Delta master plan, go back to all the initiatives that government has put in place to address the issue of militancy and unrest in the Niger Delta”.