Former militant leaders from the nine states of the Niger Delta have warned officials of the Federal Ministry of Justice led by the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba, to stop allegedly sabotaging the Presidential Amnesty Office. They specifically mentioned the probe of the allegedly looted ₦60 billion Amnesty Training Centre located in Bayelsa State.
The angry former warlords also warned that the alleged sabotage of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) from filling proper defence against a ₦3.8billion suit, plus damages filed by the accused fifteen companies involved in the 2019 looting centre is provocative and raising tensions across the region against the ministry and its officials.
Under the aegis of the Reintegrated Ex-Militants Forum {REF), they, however, declared that failure by Jedy-Agba and others to allow proper judicial process as well as to immediately provide the Amnesty office with competent legal representatives to defend the alleged fraudulent cases as required by law, will lead to them being declared ” Persona Non Grata across the nine (9) states in the Niger Delta region and order citizen’s arrest.”
The REF, in a statement issued by its National Coordinator, former General Tony Ebikalaide (aka Black Spider), said, “at the strategic moment, alerts will be issued to all ex-militant camps to be on the lookout across the entire Niger Delta region to ensure citizen’s arrest of the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba, and other officials in the Judiciary fingered in the alleged plot to sabotage the PAP cases for their personal benefits.”
Another group, Niger Delta Amnesty Beneficiary Forum, had accused Jedy-Agba and other officials in the judiciary of corruption and being compromised.
The group said: “instead of the officials of the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary to support the legal representation made by the Amnesty Office’s legal team against the suits filed by the accused 15 companies in the tune of N3.8billion, plus 21 per cent post – judgment fees, and special damages which can go as high as N5billion to N8billion, Mrs. Jedy-Agba and other officials in the judiciary are busy sabotaging the Amnesty office’s efforts in court by removing the Amnesty Programme’s legal adviser and other experienced legal officers from the Amnesty office to deprive the Amnesty office from putting in proper representation in court.”
The Niger Delta Amnesty Beneficiary Forum in their previous publication also stated that the “15 companies’ suits had different directors, and were filed separately on the same day, but all 15 cases were assigned to only two (2) judges of the FCT High court.”
It added: “Whereas there are over 140 courts within the FCT jurisdiction. What are the odds that one judge was assigned nine (9) cases, and the second judge assigned six (6) cases? We had our observers in these courts proceedings; therefore, it will interest you to know that the suits were diligently defended by the Amnesty office lawyers, but in a bid to ensure that there is no clog on their way, the Solicitor General hastily posted out the lawyers that were diligently defending the Presidential Amnesty Programme against these fraudulent suits.”
The REF called on President Muhammadu Buhari and other officials in the Presidency, including the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Mohammed Monguno (rtd.), to note the alleged schemes by some officials within the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary in collusion with plaintiffs suing the federal government; these officials may sabotage cases in court worth billions of naira in favour of plaintiffs for their personal monetary gains.
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It added: “These frequent acts of treachery and or treason, if not nipped at the bud, might cause grave economic and national security implications for the federal government.
“Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba and her colleagues have taken our silence for weakness. Since the appointment of Col. Miland Dixon Dikio (rtd.) as the Interim Administrator of PAP, the Niger Delta region has been the most peaceful region in the country. Col. Dikio vigorously worked with stakeholders to gain the trust and respect of the diverse ex-militants and ex-warlords camps. Col. Dikio has successfully repositioned the PAP towards achieving its core mandates as envisioned by our founding-father and hero, Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua GCFR, and Col. Dikio is on track with the PAP to achieve major milestones prior to 29th May 2023.
“We are all witnesses to the lawlessness and anarchy going-on in the country, where many parts of northern Nigeria are not motorable, including corruption allegations and arrests of government officials for fraud by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Col. Dikio (rtd.) is the only appointee by the President Buhari administration from the Niger Delta region that is directly working with ex-militant leaders and ex-warlords to stem the tide against violence, kidnapping of expatriates, pipeline vandalism and total anarchy that would have been caused by angry ex-militants across the oil and gas- rich Niger Delta region which could devastate the national economy.
“Can Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba and her colleagues try this nonsense at the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) or any northern intervention agency?
“We are aware in the past that the sons and daughters of the Niger Delta region are the ones being used to truncate efforts of our region’s intervention agencies such as the NDDC and the PAP, and against the development of our region, including the empowerment of people in the Niger Delta, but this time-around, we want to warn Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba, who hails from Edo State to thread carefully as she and her colleagues are no longer welcome in Edo state or any other state across the Niger Delta region.”
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