Yar’Adua’s Government Denies Buying Guns From Militants
The Nigerian government has denied allegations it is buying guns and ammunition to prove its amnesty program in the Niger Delta is on course.
Policemen displayed weapons Saturday collected from Niger delta militants as part of the government amnesty program in Yenagoa, Nigeria.
“Militants are responding to the amnesty program,” Timiebi Koripamo-Agary from the state-run Amnesty Committee told Dow Jones Newswires, in response to allegations made by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, that there “is deceit in the amnesty program.”
In June, Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua offered an amnesty to those Niger Delta militants who agree to lay down their equipment, arms and ammunition between Aug. 6 and Oct. 4. He received the first group of militants to accept the amnesty offer at a ceremony in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on Aug. 7.
MEND, which rejected the amnesty offer, alleged in a statement that many of the weapons surrendered by militants who have embraced the amnesty were in fact bought by the government.
Jomo Gbomo, a MEND spokesman, said the group would resume attacks on the country’s oil industry at the end of its ceasefire Sept. 15 “to prove that weapons being displayed are mostly government-owned.” MEND declared a 60-day ceasefire July 14 and hasn’t carried out any attacks since.
Mr. Koripamo-Agary said the government had no reason to buy guns, adding that MEND should prove its allegations.
