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Yar'Adua Grants Amnesty to Niger Delta Militants"We are working on the terms of amnesty for those (Niger Delta) militants who will lay down their arms," President Umaru Yar'Adua disclosed, saying the package includes their integration into normal society. He made the announcement in Abuja when he listed the achievements of his seven-point agenda to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He said the amnesty would consolidate peace in the Deep South with the creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta and the new rules of engagement fashioned out for the military Joint Task Force (JTF). Efforts are being made, he said, to ensure the JTF is properly funded to protect lives and property. Yar'Adua also announced the imminent concessioning of federal roads from Lagos-Ibadan, Shagamu-Benin, and Abuja-Kaduna. He implored Nigerians not to bother about power outages because everything is in place to achieve the 6,000 megawatts (mw) he promised to deliver this year, raised to 10,000 mw in 2011. "All the plans and required funding for (their) attainment is in place. I am reiterating this so that the nation will know, so that it can hold the (PDP) and government to account," Yar'Adua added. He restated his resolve to spend at least 1.6 per cent of the Federation Account on agriculture in the next four years, in pursuit of food security that will also create jobs. He said he has inaugurated the Land Reform Committee, plans to set up a Land Reform Commission, and described electoral reform as the "duty of all" in which the PDP should bear a great responsibility as well as be an example in internal democracy. Yar'Adua urged Nigerians to be disciplined and make sacrifices to enable the country survive the worldwide economic recession. |