Amnesty programme has transformed ex-agitators —Coordinator

The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Brigadier-General Paul Boro (retd), has said that the scheme has transformed the lives of former Niger Delta agitators.

Boro, also Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, spoke at the graduation of 80 ex-agitators at Innoson KIARA Academy in Enugu on Saturday.

He said that the Federal Government was impressed with the response of the participants and that he decided to witness the graduation to underscore the importance the government attached to the scheme.

“When I was signing the document for over 200 of you to come to Eastern Nigeria to study. I thought you would not come as you were only familiar with the Niger Delta area.

“Today, I have come to see you succeeding and that means the amnesty programme is on course.

“We shall put our heads together to make sure that you follow through what you have learnt so that other people will see you as serious and try to be like you,” he said.

He appealed to them to make the country proud in their chosen fields of endeavour and be proud of their heritage.

He also charged them to hold the Niger Delta region very dear and be good ambassadors of the area, adding that the whole region was a pride to the nation.

“The Niger Delta is Africa’s largest delta and the third largest in the world. It covers 70,000 square kilometres and the home of 31 million people with over 39,300 settlements.

“Let us appreciate it and not destroy it,” Boro said.

Boro said that elsewhere participants in the scheme had shown greater reliability and commitment to succeed in life.

“Two weeks ago I went to graduates some of our brothers and sisters in London. They surprised everybody in the world because four of them made first class degrees while 22 made second class upper division,” he said.