A new amnesty programme for ex-militants in the Niger Delta region is expected to kick-start in the first week of October 2016, the coordinator, Paul Boro, has said.

Boro disclosed this to newsmen at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omegwa, where he said the Federal Government, through the Amnesty Office, was organising an intensive agricultural programme for the ex-militants at the Scientific Research Agricultural Institute in Edo State.

The amnesty co-coordinator further disclosed that the new amnesty programme would capture all the ex-militants and everybody that did not benefit from the previous exercise.

The new programme, which he said would take off by the first week of October 2016, would be carried out in batches with about 500 people in the first batch and about 1,000 persons in subsequent batches.

Boro explained that the agricultural amnesty programme would be both theoretical and practical for about one month and that the training would be enough to enable them go into full-scale farming

He explained that the Federal Government through the amnesty office would empower the trained farmers to be on their own.

According to him, his office would source the fund to empower the farmers through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Agriculture, he pointed out, has presented itself as the viable alternative ready to absorb most persons. “Everybody will benefit from the amnesty programme and that is why I want everybody to key into agriculture, irrespective of your profession.”

•Source from Business Day (Nigeria)