Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has said the Federal Government will employ Niger Delta youths involved in illegal refining of crude oil.

He disclosed this during a special engagement on Niger-Delta matters held in Port-Harcourt on Tuesday.

Osinbajo said the government is committed to ensuring that youths from the area stay away from crime.

He said: “We have talked about those young men and women who are involved in illegal refining of crude oil

approach to that is that we must engage them by establishing modular refineries so that they can participate in legal refining not illegal refining. And we are committed to making sure that young men and women of the Niger-Delta region are properly engaged.”

He also debunked rumours that the amnesty programme of the federal government has been scraped adding that more resources has been earmarked for the sustenance of the programme in the 2017 budget.

“We’ll look at the amnesty issues, we’ll make sure that amnesty continues. Some people have been trying to suggest that we have remove the amnesty programme. That’s not true. We have made more provision for amnesty than has ever been made.

The acting President also said Rivers state has the second highest number of unemployed youths captured in the N-Power program.

“We have made more provision for social intervention. Rivers state has the second largest number of unemployed young graduates who have been employed by the federal government under our N-Power scheme.

“We made sure in that employment process that the young men and women applied online. We did not allow any interference in the process. They were given their appointments and they have already been deployed and they will be working here,” Osinbajo said.

Azeez