Ex-militants threaten showdown with Ondo govt

Ex-militants from the coastal area of Ondo state, on Wednesday, threatened showdown with the state government over its inability to fulfil after laying down their arms and ammunition.

The aggrieved militants who alleged the state government of scam and playing politics with the amnesty programme threatened to return to the creek if the state government failed to fulfil its promise within 21 days.

Speaking on behalf of the all disarmed youths of Ilaje and Ese-Odo Local Government Areas of the State, in a press statement issued and signed by the Coordinator, General Ogailo Ibory, called on the state government to return all the arms submitted by the militants or forget election in the riverine area of the state.

Ibory said the call became imperative after the state government decided not to fulfil its promise and abandoned them without communicating with the group again.

He said in the statement “We are issuing this press statement because we are tired of the unfulfilled promises of the Ondo State Government that collected our guns since last year without any effort to make us benefit from the Amnesty programme of the Federal government.

“We heeded to the appeal of the  Ondo State Government through the Deputy Governor, Hon Agboola Ajayi and the Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Donald Ojogo who came to the creeks to carry the Six Epe students we kidnapped in protest.

“The two of them promised to work out Amnesty for us and we thereafter agreed to drop our guns. Up till now, we have been abandoned and no one is talking to us, they have used us and dumped in the creeks and since last year, Amnesty is not coming.”

The aggrieved militants, however, said nothing was done by the government representatives or the state government, threatening showdown with the state government.

The statement read further “we are using this medium to request the Ondo State Government to kindly return our guns that they took from us since last year within twenty-one days.

“We are very serious and we are prepared for anything that will follow. We are saying this because if at the end of the twenty-one days the government does not return our guns they deceived us to take, we will hold the entire riverine areas of Ondo, Ogun and Lagos States to ransom. Especially for Ondo State.

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“No one should come to the riverine for any electioneering campaign. We are prepared for the worst ”

Reacting to the threat from the aggrieved militants, the Commissioner for Housing in the state, Donald Ojogo, appealed to the ex-militants to continue to bear with the state government.

Ojogo who assured the aggrieved militants from the two local government areas in the coastal area, that the state government would soon fulfil all promises as regards the amnesty, saying efforts are ongoing to fulfil all the promises the state government made.

He said “We will only appeal to those concerned to bear with the Ondo State Government for some time.

“It is true the Ondo State Government brokered the arms surrender deal that was approved by the Presidency. As I am talking to you now, the Deputy Governor who risked his life to drive that process is on top of the situation.”

“We cannot come to press and give details of his efforts that are ongoing. But I can assure you that very soon, their expectations would be met. They should not just allow themselves to be used by selfish politicians and crisis entrepreneurs who tried but failed in their desperate moves to frustrate the Amnesty offer for them.

“What we did was to engender peace and ensure there is an enabling environment for investors in the riverine areas of not just  Ondo State but Ogun and Lagos.

“We will equally recall that prior to the peace deal that led to the  surrendering of the arms by the boys, the areas in question were hotbeds.”