NEDU MARK YENAGOA
Over 200 ex-militants on Thursday clashed with soldiers attached to the Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Pulo Shield while protesting non payment of their allowances along the Mbiama axis of the East-West Road, Rivers State.
The protesters claimed that the Special Adviser on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Office, Mr Kingsley Kuku was owing them their monthly stipends.
The protest which also hampered traffic flow at the busy road forced most commuters and drivers to abandon their vehicles and run for safety.
The aggrieved protesters led by the Bayelsa State Third Phase Amnesty Chairman, Mr. Ebi John, stormed Mbiama road as early as 7am obstructing traffic.
Motorists and other road users were stranded as the ex-militants chanted war songs demanding that Kuku pay them without further delay.
Shortly after they barricaded the road, military patrol vans and two Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) driven by armed soldiers rammed into a suspected mad woman and killed her.
The soldiers were said to have shot into the air many times to dislodge the youths from the road.
As the clash between the soldiers and the youths continued, some members of the Bayelsa State Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by the state Chairman of the party, Mr. Tiwe Oruminighe, rushed to the scene to appeal to the protesters to leave the road to avoid violence and bloodshed.
The APC chieftain said blocking the road was not the solution to their plight and promised that the leadership of APC in the state would seek to resolve the issues.
Oruminghe said the new Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari was genuinely concerned about the problems of the Niger Delta region and should be given time to solve them.
He said that notable leaders of the APC such as former governors Timipre Sylva, Rotimi Amaechi and the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, would not let down the region in the new government.
“We came here to talk with you to leave the road. It is a federal road and does to belong to Bayelsa State. If you block that road you are not helping the government at the centre which has come to create wealth for us.
“As brothers, I want you to understand that we need to join hands together to give small time to the government to create what we want.
He continued, “We have some notable sons and daughters that are already in this government such as Timipre Sylva, Amaechi, Oshiomhole and many others who will be taking our matter to the President. I want to promise you that your matter will be taken to the highest level and will be addressed in the shortest possible time”.
But the leader of the protesting group, accused the amnesty office of abnormalities and insensitivity adding that Kuku and the Accountant-General were deliberately delaying their allowances.
He said they earlier went to Abuja to lodge the same complaints but that Kuku unleashed terror on them using soldiers.
“We came to express our grievances on the road because there are some abnormalities going on. We felt we should come out for the public and the masses to know our plight.
“We are supposed to be entitled to salaries for over one week now. Our children are being sent out of school. But we went to Abuja. On reaching there Kuku unleashed soldiers on us,” he said.
