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Niger Delta ex-agitators blocked the East-West Road in protest against Federal Government’s failure to adhere to agreements it reached with them on sending some of them to school and training some in skills.
The ex-militants, who reportedly barricaded the Mbiama and Ahoada axis of the road, also insisted that a Niger Delta indigene should be appointed as Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme following the suspension of Professor Charles Dokubo.
A leaders of the protesters, Bodmas Michael said the people of the region have suffered for decades and were in dire need of development like good roads, bridges and electricity, insisting that only a son of the region who feels the pains and neglect of the people could make the desired impact in the scheme and not an outsider.
“We want the President to appoint someone from the region as the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty programme, because our people have been suffering for a very long time. We need good roads, bridges, human capital development and all-round of development and so someone from the region who has the interest of the people at heart can make this happen.
“We are also here because the Federal Government failed to pay us two months stipends. Second, we want the government to send some of us to school as agreed. Right now a lot of us are at home due to the removal of Dokubo,” he said.
It would be recalled that the Niger Delta militants under the aegis of the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), has alleged that something was wrong with the current architecture and supervisory framework of the amnesty programme.
The group at the weekend argued that two coordinators of the programme have been sacked for fraud within two years insisting that the latest sack was a ploy to cover up fraud in the scheme.
Due to the protest, motorists and other road users were stranded for several hours, as no one was allowed to move into Rivers State or cross to the Mbiama axis of Bayelsa State.