Nigerian Ex-militants ‘Repatriated’ After Brawl

Godsday  Orubebe , Minister of Niger Delta Affairs

Eight Nigerian ex-militants sent for a training programme in Sri Lanka have been brought back to face trial at home after they fought and destroyed property, an AFP report quoted an official as saying  Saturday.

(Lol @ this, should we be surprised?)

"They came back home yesterday (Friday) as scheduled and they were immediately handed over to security agents for investigation and prosecution," said the spokesman of the amnesty office, Henry Ugbolue.

According to him, the ex-militants sent to Sri Lanka about a month ago for a nine-month training in ship-building and under-sea welding allegedly engaged in fighting among themselves and destroyed some training equipment.

Describing the action of the Sri Lanka deportees as a breach of a code of conduct which they signed and promised to abide by, he said the eight are part of 50 former Niger Delta militants sent to the Asian country for vocational training as part of the implementation of the government amnesty programme.

This was as a News Agency of Nigeria report quoted Camp Commandant, Mr Frederick Anesah, as saying that no fewer than 1,075 youths, desperate to be part of the post-amnesty training programme, have been turned back since the 16th batch of trainees began their training  Saturday in Obubra, Cross River State.

Anesah said the 1,500 trainees in the camp from Rivers State were currently undergoing the mandatory transitional training in non-violence. He said that those turned back included ex-militants who are women, who could not be accommodated in the current batch.

Also speaking to NAN, Dr Tunde Jegede, the camp’s medical doctor, said that eligible trainees whose health conditions could not allow them to participate in the training had also been decamped.

The federal government had in 2009 granted amnesty to more than 20,000 ex-militants, who laid down their arms. More than 6,000 of these have so far been rehabilitated in batches in a camp set up for them in the southeast of the country, while hundreds of them have recently been sent to several countries for vocational training.

Militant activity in the region between 2006 and 2009, which included kidnappings and attacks on oil installations, lowered the country's oil production from 2.6 million barrels a day to about one million at the peak of the unrest. The amnesty deal has led to a sharp decline in attacks. Nigeria last month produced around 2.26 million barrels daily, according International Energy Agency figures.