Ex-militants issue Akwa Ibom govt 7-day ultimatum over lack of empowerment

EX-MILITANTS under the auspices of Bakassi Freedom Fighters at Akwa Ibom State have threatened to barge in activities by the state government to mark the 28th Anniversary celebration of the creation of the state if Governor Udom Emmanuel continues to vacillate on their empowerment programme. 

The former agitators, who gave the state government a seven-day ultimatum to address their demands was specific that  they would vandalize pipelines at Frontier Oil Limited, FOL, and interrupt events at the Ibom International Airport and ExxonMobil. They decried the neglect by the government after officials persuaded them to drop arms and embrace the federal government’s amnesty programme. Spokesperson of the group, Commander Ebong Friday, who expressed anger with the Akwa-Ibom State Government during a chat with the Niger Delta Voice (NDV) in Eket, claimed that the state government has defaulted on the agreement reached with ex-militants in 2011. He asserted, “The Akwa-Ibom state government has neglected our members since we dropped our arms to embrace the Federal Government Amnesty Programme. We have waited this long to see whether the state government would see reasons to empower us to become independent so that we do not remember the past but government seems to have only deceived us.” “So, the only way to remind the government of its promises to us is to disrupt activities in Akwa-Ibom Airport, ExxonMobil and vandalize pipelines at the FOL-Frontier Oil Limited. “It is very unfortunate that the state government is taking us for granted, we dropped our arms at the course of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and embraced peace. “It was the Akwa-Ibom state government that pleaded with us to embrace the Amnesty Programme and we surrendered our arms with an agreement that they will train and integrate us in the society,” he said.