Ex-militants threaten to protest over non-payment of stipends

by Azeez Adeniyi

Former Niger Delta militants have threatened to stage a protest over delayed payment of stipends in the amnesty programme.

A statement by the former militants read, “We are calling for the immediate release of the balance sum of the 2016 supplementary budgetary allocation … to avert any situation that will warrant beneficiaries of the programme going to the streets to protest and barricade roads.”

The former militants are entitled to 65,000 naira ($213.68) a month plus job training, under the amnesty programme.

However, special adviser on the Niger Delta, Brig. General Paul Boroh  said the programme was facing a cash crunch.

The Federal Government had resumed payments in January after earlier cutting the budget for cash payments to militants.

The government has also been in talks with militants to end the attacks which cut Nigeria’s output by 700,000 barrels a day (bpd) for several months last year, reducing total production at that time to about 1.2 million bpd.

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