Ahamefula Ogbu, Juliana Taiwo and Chinwe Ochu

1 July 2009

Lagos — Federal Government's offer of amnesty to Niger Delta militants has suffered yet another setback as the Joint Task Force (JTF), the military body responsible for security in the oil-producing region, has stopped attempts by displaced persons to return to their villages.

The amnesty offer, which has already been met with scepticism by some militant groups and opinion leaders in the region, was also criticised yesterday by Amnesty International, a human rights advocacy organisation, which said it would not work as it is only "treating the symptoms and not the root cause" of the problem.

Militants who trooped into the Atlantic Hall of the Presidential Hotel in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, venue of the stakeholders meeting with the Presidential Committee on Amnesty and Disarmament yesterday, said even though they welcomed President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's offer, the continued heavy presence of the JTF in the region had increased their scepticism about the sincerity of government.

A government official who attended the meeting told THISDAY last night that the militants who attended the meeting complained particularly about the refusal of men of JTF to allow the indigenes of the villages recently attacked by JTF, who are now in Warri, to return to their community.

The source said: "There was a lot of scepticism from the hundreds that turned out at the stakeholders meeting today because of the security situation. A lot of them said if the men of the JTF would not allow the people of Oporoza, Okerenkoko and Abiteye who were displaced and had been in Warri to return to the community, they are suspicious that they would be killed as soon as they surrender.

"There are a lot of military men crawling along Port Harcourt for instance and government must find a way of withdrawing some of them if it wants to build trust. I mean the people of Oporoza want to go back to their community from Warri where they have been putting up, but they are not allowed to go back by the JTF and that is making the militants not secure.

"The President must create enabling environment for them (militants) to trust the government enough to come out and embrace the amnesty else this presidential committee will be wasting tax payers' money and the desired result will not be achieved."

And after a prolonged silence over the fate of the white paper on the recommendations of the Niger Delta Technical Committee headed by Mr. Ledum Mitte, the Chairman of the Amnesty Implementation Committee, Air Vice-Marshal Lucky Araribe, has explained that the present state of the region was the reason behind its non-release.

He said at the stakeholders meeting yesterday that with the militants still up in arms against the Federal Government and the general state of insecurity, "how the white paper would have been implemented?"

He said the process of disarmament which had started with the amnesty proclamation would pave the way for its implementation when released.

This was as the Chairman of the Technical Committee and President of Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Mitte, while suggesting ways of making the amnesty programme work, said JTF also needs amnesty because of the atrocities committed by soldiers in the Niger Delta.

Responding to the submissions of Hon. Uche Onyeaguocha, who is lawyer to the Okirika warlord, Ateke Tom, that most of the people who were swarming them now hope to benefit from the N50 billion announced for the programme, Araribe replied that the entire money would not spent by the Committee.

According to him, the bulk of the money would be expended by the Niger Delta Ministry in addition to their budget. He pointed out that those who were aiming at the money had missed the point since when viewed against the continuity of some of the programmes; the money might not mean much.

Also in attendance were reformed militants and repentant cultists such as Commander Zero from Oluasi Creek in Bayelsa State who lamented that though they heard the message and intended to inform their colleagues in the creeks, but the JTF had blocked all routes and taken over their homes.

One Onwuchekwa lampooned the government for luring him out with unfulfilled promises.

Some suggested that fishing implements be provided, especially fishing trawlers to enable their people go into the high seas to fish as pollution from oil exploration had spoiled aquatic endowments.

On its part, Amnesty International said the amnesty package "gives impunity to the human rights abusers", ranging from the military operatives of JTF to the militants perpetuating violence in that region.

"These packages do not work because nobody is held accountable and it gives impunity to human rights abuses. There should be accountability of the JTF for their actions. It is obvious that the government is trying to seek solutions for this problem, but it is clear that the package will only succeed in treating the symptom and not the root cause. So, I think that the Amnesty package will work, but it legitimises the human rights abuses in the Niger Delta. We condemn the human rights abuses by the government security forces and those of the militants that engage in killing and displacement of innocent citizens," the report said.

The report was contained in a major news report entitled: "Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta", released yesterday in Abuja co-authored by Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International's Head of Business and Human Rights.

She called the situation in the Niger Delta a "human rights tragedy".

According to her, "the people of the Niger Delta have seen their human rights abused by oil companies that their government cannot or will not hold to account. The Niger Delta provides a stark example of the lack of accountability of a government to its people and of multinational companies' almost total lack of accountability when it comes to the impact of their operations on human rights."

She decried the state of affairs surrounding the existence of the Niger Delta indigenes, stating that the human rights impact of pollution in the Niger Delta is greatly under-reported.

"People living in the Niger Delta have to drink, cook with and wash in polluted water. They eat fish contaminated with oil and other toxins - if they are lucky enough to be able to still find fish. The land they farm on is being destroyed. After oil spills, the air they breathe smells of oil, gas and other pollutants. People complain of breathing problems and skin lesions - and yet neither the government nor the oil companies monitor the human impacts of oil pollution," said Gaughran.

She stated that protecting the rights of a citizenry is an international obligation for any government and the Federal Government had failed in that duty, since it had failed to assign responsibility to the different players in the situation.

"The Nigerian government is aware of the risks that oil-related pollution poses for human rights, but has failed to take measures to ensure those rights are not harmed. Despite the widespread pollution of the Niger Delta's land, rivers and creeks - and the many complaints from people living in the region - we could find almost no government data on the impact on humans of any aspect of oil pollution in the Niger Delta," she added.
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