Open Letter To Osinbajo On Amnesty: Non Payment Of Ex Militants
The Vice President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria
ATTENTION: PROF YEMI OSINBAJO
OPEN LETTER TO THE VICE PRESIDENT
LETTER OF COMPLAIN AND PRETRIAL NOTICE OF THE ILLEGAL, DEFRAUDING, DEHUMANISING, DEGRADING, EXTREMELY PUNISHING AND PROVOKING OF 300 AMNESTY BENEFICIARIES BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT ON NIGER DELTA AMNESTY PROGRAMME
It is with utmost pain but with the greatest sense of responsibility and respect for law and Oder that we make this humble letter to you.
We are beneficiaries of the late president Umaru Musa Yara’Adua Presidential Amnesty programme, Federal Government Amnesty Programme in Rivers State, and I am using this medium to inform you of the irregularities and corruption to the highest level that has eaten up the vision of our late President, President Umaru Musa Yar ‘Adua in the matter of the herein above stated subject matter that requires your urgent attention.
It is pertinent to note that we are the rightful beneficiaries of the Federal Government Amnesty Programme’s first batch as captured in the original biometric compilation since its inception in 2009, and recipients of the Programme’s monthly stipends up until October 2015 when our payments were abruptly halted and our names surreptitiously removed. Despite all measures to amicably settle this issue through several letters written to the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty Programme, our members have still remained unpaid till this very moment culminating in over two years of strife, hardship and penury capable of pushing us into unwholesome practices long forgotten and abandoned by us.
Our instant burden stems from the cries of woes occasioned upon over 300 members of us of which only 56 beneficiaries are courageous to defend and fight for our rights and whose names are attached hereto; by the Presidential Amnesty Programme official delegated in recent times to Rivers State by the Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty Programme, in person of Brigadier-General Paul T. Boroh (Rtd). The 56 of us are not just ordinary Nigerians; we are as it were youths struggling to out-live environmental, social and political despoliation, degradation and other denials emanating from the operations of the extractive industries and multinational oil and gas conglomerates who have taken over the Niger Delta land, waters and air through activities of flow stations, pipe linings, spillages and gas flares. All of which will not know anything close to abatement soon. Undoubtedly, life is certainly unbearably short and brutal for all of us already.
The special Adviser on Amnesty to the President Mohammadu Buhari through his hirelings, the likes of Retired Major Bernard Ocheoche (the Amnesty data base controller), Gabriel Ajama ( the swap master) and Lt. Col. Ogunbote have in recent times been used in connivance with officials of Heritage Bank to surcharge members of the beneficiaries whose monthly stipends have been ;
out rightly confiscated, ( October 2015 unpaid till date)
drastically deducted for no just cause ( all deducted monies should be refunded )
paid to persons brought in to surreptitiously substitute the actual beneficiaries (all money should be refunded to the rightful owners.
data manipulated and pictures illegally swapped (correct all data)
amnesty identity cards and certificates unlawfully confiscated (return all card and certificates forthwith)
While struggling to survive these troubling circumstances enumerated above, the Amnesty office delegated its payment led by Retired Major Ben and the Chief Security Officer of the Programme , Lt. Col Ogunbote who came to Port Harcourt under the guise of solving these problems and on the 28th day of January 2016, some of our members who attended these invite, identified by their leaders at Polo Clubs GRA, Port Harcourt were;
Forced by Arms bearing soldiers to yield up our Federal Government issued Disarmament Identity cards, our statements of accounts and some person’s disbarment Certificate was seized by these soldiers,
who detained our members for well over 20 hours (28th -29th January 2016) without food and water at the said venue where they were forced to switch off their telephones or hand them over,
we were not allowed to use the toilet, we were beaten with horse whips, asked to do frog jumps, roll on the bare ground, insulted and we were ask to go away without our Amnesty stipends released to us after taking us through such degrading and inhumane treatments.
Payments team refused to use the original disarmament biometrics data to confirm our member’s identity and to update their records.
All of our members complaints were ignored much more so after we were tortured and subjected to such degrading and inhuman treatments and till date we are not just left in abeyance, in hunger and debts, we now live in excruciating and mind boggling pains. We have been made to feel as though we do not deserve these sums owed us and that these payment officials of the Amnesty programme who earn their legitimate salaries and allowances are the ones entitled to all such money now owed us.
As a result of the flagrant brazen impunity and in absence of any response or resolution thereof, we were compelled to immediately institute an action to safeguard and uphold our rights to justice and preservation before the Honourable Courts of justice of our land, namely the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State in SUIT NO.FHC/PH/CS/39/2017 WARMET CHARLES & 56 ORS V THE ACCOUNTANT GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION & 2 ORS, pending in Court through our solicitor.
No doubt the polity in the Niger Delta, albeit Rivers State, is over heated already. Such acts of flagrant impunity spearheaded by the office of the Special Adviser on Amnesty to the President of Nigeria, we wonder if it is under your kind knowledge, is no doubt an additional build up of accumulating provocation in the face of the current dwindling economy. The office of the Special Adviser is priming breakdown of law and Order, our members have been pushed to the walls for years now. They are now vexed with over exercised patience. Hence, this OPEN LETTER which we respectfully urge you to attend to with extreme urgency.
It is therefore a matter of urgent National Importance that you intervene expeditiously before this drum full of gunpowder blows up to cause mayhem to our Niger Delta and Nation more pains. We therefore on behalf of our members urge you to use your good office to speedily intervene in this deplorable situation and ensure the prompt payment of our outstanding monthly stipends and restoration of our names back to the Amnesty programme by directing the office of the Special Adviser on Amnesty as soon as possible as we are also open for negotiation and peace.
Thank you your Excellency for your anticipated speedy intervention.
I wish your administration a resounding success.
Long live the Federal Government Amnesty programme, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria
We are much obliged.
Yours sincerely
…………………..
IKENIMI MARKSON
(08063630949)
For and on behalf of the 56 affected members
CC
Senate president
Speaker House of Representative
Special Adviser to the president on Amnesty
Attach are the affected names
WARMET CHARLES
IKENIMI T. MARKSON
HARCOURT O. HARCOURT
OTOKINI FYFIFACE
LEE OWUJE
DICKSON PHILIP SECOND
MINJIYE SUKUBO
JOHN ABEL
THANKS SUKUBO
ANARIOCHI MBAH
AYODELE OLATUGA
OKELE TEBOKEBOLOYE
ADU EMESIOBI
JEREMIAH BEN
PRINCE AMADI
MAKINTOS CLINTON
DANDISIN WOKOMA
UKPABI FRIDAY
OBULU LUCKY
ESAU BELIEVE
ABIYE EKINE
STEPHEN AKANI
DADDY ROCK
DENNIS WEST
BEEN OBESARO
NIABARI KIRI
INNOCENT ALIKOR
OTUGOH COSMOS
EMMANUEL D. PHILIP
AMIEYEFORI POLLYN
PRECIOUS BOBMANUEL
TEKENA DAVIES
GODWIN BESTMAN
ITIY CHRISSY
GOODLUCK SCENT
TEME DICK
FYNFACE PAUL
ICHECHI WODE
SONGO BRAIDE
DIGIBUJIRI WASHINGTON JACK
LOLO AGALA
PERE KEEPER
EBITO CHRISTIAN
TMABIYE ABBEY
TOMBODIA BRAIDE
DONALD TAMUNOSAKI DOKUBO
DUMO HARRY
OBED SAVIOUR
SAMUEL DAVID SENIOR
SOLOMON BENIBO
OKORINAMA HORSFALL
OGECHI WOKE
JACOB IBIOKIRI
KELVIN LAWSON
TONYE STALEY WEST
PRINCE JACK
