The Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide has warned of imminent insurgency in the Niger Delta region over non-payment of the tuition and allowances of former militants.
It regarded the development, especially those undergoing undergraduate and post-graduate degree programmes within and outside Nigeria, as a deliberate ploy by the Federal Government to create another round of insurgency in the region.
In a statement on yesterday by the spokesman for the IYC, Eric Omare, the group said the non-payment of tuition and allowances since the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari had subjected beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme to untold hardship with the government showing no concern.
It said, “The IYC wishes to alert Nigerians and the international community that the rising tension in the Niger Delta region as a result of the non-payment of allowances to beneficiaries of the PAP would soon result in security breach in the region.
“We strongly believe that this is a deliberate ploy by some interest groups in the Presidency to frustrate the amnesty programme, create crisis in the Niger Delta region and use it as a justification to attack the region.
“The Federal Government has no single justification for not paying the accrued allowances because the amnesty office has sufficient funds in its account.
“For the umpteenth times, the IYC calls on opinion leaders, elders and the international community to prevail on President Buhari to fulfill the government’s obligation to the former agitators.”
The group advised the Federal Government to pay the beneficiaries’ tuition and allowances without delay.
It further urged the Muhammadu Buhari administration to ensure that the amnesty programme is followed to its logical conclusion by training all the beneficiaries, warning that “a stitch in time saves nine.”
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.