The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Prof Charles Dokubo, has lamented the poor response of the people of the region to the Presidential Amnesty Programme for the repentant militants in the region.
He warned that should they fail to take advantage of the programme, their children would blame them in the future.
Dokubo gave the assurance that President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to the programme.
A statement on Sunday by his media aide, Murphy Ganagana, quoted Dokubo as saying this in Abuja during the Boro Day rally, organised to mark the struggle for the emancipation of the Niger Delta, which was spearheaded by the late Major Isaac Boro.
He said, “My fear is that if this Amnesty Programme is not well used by our people, I mean the ordinary Niger Delta people, in years to come our children will blame us.
“This programme is to empower us, the people from the Niger Delta. My brothers and sisters, let us not allow this opportunity to slip from our hands. We are all Niger Deltans. I believe we are all equal and I know this programme is for everyone in the Niger Delta.
“We should work hard and look at the opportunities created by this programme. Then, we can say to ourselves, we have done our best.”
Dokubo said the late Boro was the first person to recognise the Niger Delta as a viable area.
“We are here today because of a journey he (Boro) started some years ago. What we do here is to symbolise the aspiration and the ambition of Isaac Boro. Amnesty is a direct reflection of his desires for the Niger Delta people,” he said.