Ex-agitators in the Niger Delta region should be integrated into the military and federal agencies for gainful employment, according to a stakeholder, Tonye Bobo, leader of the Third Phase amnesty programme.

Bobo who spoke to our correspondent on Saturday in Yenagoa stated that training ex-agitators without employment was a waste of time and resources pointing out that fully engaging them was part of their integration into the society.

Baring his mind on the newly appointed Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dr Dennis Otuaro, argued that “you cannot train somebody and dump the person” as the person would become irrelevant.

“The reason for training them is to reintegrate them into the society and that has not been completed. That is why the ex-agitators are still complaining. You cannot train somebody and abandon him after getting the skill without anything for more than seven or eight years,” Bobo reasoned.

Bobo added if PAP was having challenges with the reintegration of the Third Phase ex-agitators there should be an increment in their monthly stipend from N65,000 to N150,000 saying the former was no longer enough due to present economic realities.

On the recent calls for Otuaro’s sack, he said it was too early to judge his administration and that he has the interest of the people of the Niger Delta at heart.

According to him, Otuaro has “come to transform the programme to the original plan of the programme. Within this short period in office, he has strategically engaged some stakeholders.

“He is also on tour in partnering with some institutions of the Presidential Amnesty Programme sponsorship. In no distant time, he will be visiting various leaders of the phases including traditional rulers and the big five. The big five are the critical stakeholders that signed the Amnesty peace deal,” he added.

In his contribution, the National Vice Chairman of the Third Phase of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Alhaji Letugbene, said they believe in the leadership of Otuaro as he was part of the struggle. (Sunday PUNCH)

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