KUKU WARNS TOGO:NO MORE ROOM FOR EX-MILITANTS

‘No more room for ex-militants,I can receive your arms’

-Kuku warns Togo

  

 Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs Kingsley Kuku yesterday said only the President can receive arms from renegade militant leader John Togo.

He said Togo had once accepted the amnesty but reneged on the offer.

Kuku, who spoke with reporters in Lagos, said: “John Togo has not surrendered any weapon to the Federal Government; he and his team declared that they are willing to re-surrender their arms. 

“He was part of this programme and had shown willingness to be part of the programme.

“We are yet to receive any communication from him and his group to that effect. If John Togo’s arms are to be received only President Jonathan can receive them, or direct anybody to receive them.”

Kuku said only Jonathan has the constitutional powers to grant amnesty to the over 1,500 youths from Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Rivers, and Ondo states.

“I do not want to blame anybody, that when amnesty was proclaimed in August 25, 2009, people did not believe that it was going to be a reality.

“October 4, 2009 was the deadline; 20,192 people accepted amnesty.I think that we cannot keep going on like that, there has been a deadline for amnesty; it is over.

“People cannot come from anywhere to say they must be included in the programme, however, it is only the President who has the singular right and power to include or refuse to include, or deny inclusion for anybody into this programme.

“I have not received any instruction or directive from the President, if I do get such directive to include such people into this programme, we will commence the process of including them.

“But so far, the President has put a stop to further inclusion for acceptance of special amnesty.”

The deadline, Kuku said, is over.He said 24 youths, including two ladies, were flown to the PetroSkills Petroleum Institute in Houston, United States, for a six-month vocational training course in oil and gas drilling.

His words: “There are over 1,500 youths who are ready to accept amnesty and lay down their arms for the government’s re- integration programme.