SCHOLARS OF ELECTRIC POWER TRANSFORMER REPAIR & MAINTENANCE EMBARK ON A PEACEFUL PROTEST GIVE 7 DAY ULTIMATUM THE PRESIDENTIAL AMNESTY PROGRAMME OVER UNPAID CONTRACTS

The group under the scholars of electric power transformer repair & maintenance has embarked on a peaceful protest and given a 7 day ultimatum to the Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme to commence payment of the contractors and consultants and called on President Buhari to urgently intervene in order for training classes to resume and enable them reintegrate fully into the society and take care of their families. According to the group failure to do so would take the agitation to the next level.

Speaking at the Amnesty Head office in GRA Port Harcourt, Mr. Bera Baride said the Amnesty programme which was envisioned to bring lasting peace to the Niger Delta and take youths out of the creeks into a life of meaningful engagement initiated through the federal government a transformer factory worth three hundred and seven million dollars in conjunction with a Chinese bank which ploughed two hundred and sixty-one point four million dollars to buy equipment while the FG provided the balance as counterpart funding. It said today, sixty Nigerian engineers are in China undergoing training in transformer manufacturing with the aim of manufacturing transformers locally and save the country the millions of dollars on foreign technical support.

Also speaking General Prince Young lamented that after going through two stages of the Amnesty programme, their members have been unable to go through the final phase as the Federal Government has abandoned them and the Amnesty Office has forgotten that there are scholars under the Electric Power Transformer repair& maintenance programme.

The group recalled that the Amnesty programme was envisioned to bring lasting peace to the Niger Delta region and take the youths out of the creeks into a life of meaningful engagement with funds drawn from God given resources in the Niger Delta in three phases - Disarmament, Rehabilitation and Reintegration. 

Also speaking Mr. Akolan Christian of the Fara D./ Camp Abbia State said they had gotten to the last phase on the 3rd of July 2019 only to be asked to go home on 31st October 2019 due to lack of funding and/or refusal to pay contractual obligations to contractor/consultant of Electric power transformer repair and maintenance. He called on the Federal Government to look into their plight as power distribution is a major challenge in Nigeria with a limited number of skilled and semi-skilled manpower in this area.