Ex-militants protest in Edo, demand removal of Kuku ''They're impostors

Hundreds of members of the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN), under the Presidential Amnesty Programme, on Monday, stormed the streets of Benin City, Edo State capital, threatening to return to the creeks to resume their militant activities if the Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty, Mr Kingsley Kuku, failed to pay them their entitlements.The placard-carrying protesters, who said they were members of the Phase Two ex-militants, alleged that they were aware the Federal Government had since released financial entitlements, alleging that the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty had refused to pay them for up to 19 months now.Addressing journalists at the Nigeria of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council Press Centre, their spokesmen, Azebiri and Julius Bank, said about 6,166 ex-militants were taken to Obubra Camp in Calabar, Cross River State, for documentation, while they opened accounts in their names at two banks around March 2011.The spokesmen said after the documentation and opening of accounts, they hoped for their salaries, but no money was paid into their accounts.They also said they were taken to another camp in Lagos State, adding that even at that, no money was paid into their accounts until they protested to the amnesty office at Abuja on February 8, 2012.'The amnesty office effected payment on February 8, which they started with January payment,' they said.Reacting, the spokesperson for the amnesty programme, Dan Alabra, described the protesters as impostors.He said so far, 26,368 disarmed youths were in the programme, with their entitlements paid on 26th of every month.He noted that it was curious for disarmed youths to keep quiet for 19 months without being paid.
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