The Bayelsa State Coordinator of the Niger Delta amnesty funds, Pastor Reuben Wilson, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Suleiman Abba, alleging that some persons were after his life.
Though he did not specifically mentioned anybody’s name, but he stated that those behind the alleged plot, were former militants in Bayelsa State.
He stated in his petition that scores of former Niger Delta militant leaders for some time now were locked in a battle with him, over alleged missing N150million amnesty funds.
The State’s amnesty program coordinator, who is in charge of funds, is accused of diverting the sum of N150m amnesty funds. The allegation he said was not true.
He added that the money was intact, “why they are crying wolf is that they want me to alter the payment formula. They want cash, paid directly to them in bulk instead of the monthly payment as stipulated by government. I told them that would not be possible. Since then, I have been receiving strange calls and text messages on my phone. Some of them calling me names like ‘thief, fraudster, and crooked fellow’, while others are outright threat to my life and family members. They are even saying that they can kidnap me or any member of my family, and would not release that victim, until I meet their demands.”
Pastor Wilson, in the petition dated, December 1st 2014 and signed by him, is asking the Police boss to step into the matter, and bring those behind the threat to book, “Before anything sinister happens to me or any member of my family,” he stated.
Our Correspondent contacted the lawyer to the aggrieved militants, Olu Ojujoh & Co., who said his clients (the former militants) were the first to forward a petition to the Police and President Goodluck Jonathan, alleging some misdemeanors in the disbursement of the amnesty funds in Bayelsa State.
He stressed that the ex-agitators have asked the Federal Government to commence investigations into the alleged diversion of the sum of N150Million amnesty funds in Bayelsa State.
According to him, the ex-agitators are saying that the money was meant for their empowerment but was nowhere to be found, suspecting that it had been diverted to private pockets.
In a petition addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan, a copy of which our Correspondent obtained through their lawyers, Olu Ojujoh & Co., the ex-militants said since they surrendered their arms in 2009, nothing had been done to resettle them.
The group of ex-militants in the petition dated November 25 and signed by Head of Chambers, Olu Ojujoh, accused Wilson of “squandering all the money the Federal Government paid through him to resettled them.”
The ex-agitators in the petition made available to our correspondent on Tuesday, also called on the police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and other anti-graft agencies to arrest and probe Wilson.
They traced their woes to 2011 when, according to them, the Federal Government through the Amnesty Office released N10m housing allowance to each militant leader.
But the aggrieved ex-militants claimed that their group leader was fond of paying them what he liked instead of the money approved by the government.
Part of the petition said, “Our clients and other former Niger Delta agitators elected Pastor Reuben Wilson as their coordinator so that the federal government amnesty office can deal with an individual as their representative and for them to speak in one voice.
“The behaviour of Pastor Reuben Wilson has caused our clients and their followers a lot of hardship and loss of confidence. The followers of our clients who are the primary beneficiaries of the housing allowance of N150,000 are threatening to deal with our clients.
“They are issuing the threats on the erroneous belief that our clients did not pay them the allowances. It is a common knowledge that a threat to ‘deal with’ in the context means to kill the person, and text messages to that effect are numerous.”
