re – Amnesty Package – application to become a Militant
After reading the news below, I have changed my mind. I would want to join forces with the Niger Delta Militants. This piece of news is my inspiration:
Amnesty Package: Militants To Get N20,000 Each Monthly – N1,500 For Food daily – 10,000 To Be Affected
Donald Ojogo, South-South Bureau Chief with Agency Reports – 18.07.2009Some 10,000 militants could benefit from an amnesty in Niger Delta region, a military official told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Friday.
Air-Vice Marshal Lucky Ararile said militants, who disarmed, would be paid a monthly allowance of N20,000 and a daily food allowance of N1,500, while being reintegrated into civilian life. The main militant group has called a 60-day halt to attacks in the Delta. This followed the release of militant leader, Henry Okah on Monday, as part of the amnesty.
AVM Ararile said the militants were based at about 60 camps around the Delta. He said the authorities were setting up 27 collection and reintegration centres for the disarming fighters, mostly in Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa states where the violence had been worst. The disarming militants would be paid N20,000 ($135) per month while in the centres, along with N1,500 a day for food, he said.
After a major military offensive in May, President Umaru Yar’Adua proposed the amnesty, in an offer which lasts until October. Rebel leader, Henry Okah, was the first militant granted amnesty this month. But his organisation, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, dismissed the amnesty offer in general, saying it should be aimed at criminals, not “freedom fighters.”
The movement has been attacking oil installations, kidnapping petroleum company employees and fighting government troops since January 2006 in what it called a protest against the unrelenting poverty of people in the Niger Delta. It wants to force the government to devote more oil-industry funds to the region. At the same time, Nigeria’s military has been fighting a losing battle against its opponents, who use guerrilla tactics in an intricate network of lagoons, creeks, estuaries and mangrove swamps stretching across one million square miles (640 million acres). The area is home to several minority groups and some of Africa’s largest oil deposits.
Reacting to the speculation on Friday, a militant leader, who called himself one of the field commanders of MEND, but preffered to remain anonymous, threatened that the nation would witness deadlier attacks on unexpected economic interests. The militant leader’s reaction came as the coordinator of Ijaw Monitoring Group, Joseph Evah, warned that the amnesty package of the Federal Government was heading for the rocks in the face of the speculation.
The militia warlord who spoke on telephone however, asserted that all freedom fighters will observe the 60- day ceasefire after which the next line of action will be determined. “We have been hearing of things like that but we shall not react until the end of the ceasefire declared by the leadership of MEND; but I can assure you that government should not contemplate such a rubbish; who told them we are hungry?
“They should keep their N20,000 for their families, we don’t need it to survive because even some of us have been doing more than that for our fighters in the creeks. But let me assure you, once that is confirmed to be true, then the nation should be prepared for deadlier attacks on what the deceitful political leadership relies on to give to us.”
Dear President Yar’ Adua,
I would humbly want to file an application for membership as a Niger Delta Militant. With the above proposal as my inspiration, I have calculated what I stand to benefit as follows:
- N20,000.00 / month = N20,000.00 / month
- Daily food allowance = N1,500 * 7-days/week = N10,500.00. This amounts to an approximate N30,000.00 / month
The above is a summary N50,000.00 – Fifty Thousand Naira Only, just for being an Ex-Militant. I believe that even though I don’t have experience yet, I can quickly gain experience before the above proposal is fully implemented.
Sir, I remember the Nigerian Government paid me NGN7,500(Seven-Thousand, Five Hundred Naira only) / month as a Youth Corper, after 5-rigorous years of University education. Would it not have been better if I had joined the Niger Delta 5-years ago?
Rather than going for a University degree in Petroleum Engineering, I would have gone for a Bachelors of Science in Pipe-Line Explosion Engineering(PL-EE), with a Minor in Kidnap For Ransom(KFR) technology. Considering that this is more of a practical / hands-on course, rather than the host of theoretical courses we have in Nigerian Universities, I would have become more relevant in the environment. Now I know better. And by now, I would have had 5-years experience as a rock-solid Militant.
Or perhaps I am grossly mistaken that our host of economically irrelevant leaders do not know the difference between a University certificate and Militant-hood. Anyway sir, I am very much interested in this Militant-Civilian Reintegration offer, and therefore am making this application. Since there is no length of time for the reintegration process, the duration of my own re-integration will be a minimum of 5-years. I believe I would get an increase in allowances in the process.
Kindly sir, accept my application and allow me to be deputized by your office immediately. I am awaiting your swift response sir.
warm regards
MyPenMyPaper
hmm’ wahala dey
With so much hunger in the country, some will go to extreme lengths to see that their hunger gets satisfied…