Niger Delta militants are expected to start turning in their arms at collection centres on Thursday when an unconditional pardon offered by President Umaru Yar'Adua begins, the amnesty committee said.

Yar'Adua offered a 60-day amnesty to gunmen on 24 June, in an effort to stem unrest in the oil-producing delta region which has prevented Nigeria from pumping much above two-thirds of its oil capacity.

Attacks have cost the world's eighth-biggest exporter billions of dollars a year in lost revenues.

"To Take advantage of the amnesty all such people covered should go to the nearest screening centre, turn in their arms, register, take an oath of renunciation of militancy and violence and receive the presidential amnesty and unconditional pardon," Timiebi Koripamo-Agary, spokeswoman for the presidential panel on amnesty said in a statement.

Agary urged militants who doubted government's sincerity to emulate Henry Okah, a suspected leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). He accepted the offer and was released from detention in July after gun-running and treason charges against him were dropped.

MEND, responsible for a wave of attacks that have hurt Nigeria's oil industry over the past three years, said on Wednesday its leader in Bayelsa state, Ebikabowei Victor Ben, known locally as Boyloaf, had accepted the amnesty terms.

The group has previously publicly rejected the amnesty programme in its current form.

"Boyloaf is not acting on behalf of MEND which is already in consultations... The outcome of these negotiations will determine MEND's approach to the government's offer," the country's most prominent rebel group said in an emailed statement.
 
Thousands of militants
MEND is currently in consultations with a senior Yar'Adua aide on their terms for an amnesty.

The group, responsible for pipeline bombings, attacks on oil and gas installations and abductions of foreign oil workers since early 2006, declared a 60-day ceasefire on July 15 after Okah's release to allow for peace talks with the government.

The amnesty committee spokeswoman said last week some rebel leaders were prepared to lay down their weapons but feared for their safety.

Hundreds of militants had expressed interest in taking the clemency, including a commander in the Bakassi area who said he and 800 fighters were ready to accept the offer, Agary said.

With 50 to 60 militant camps believed to be in the Niger Delta, the government hopes up to 10,000 militants will join the programme, which seeks to disarm, educate, rehabilitate and reintegrate militants and criminals into mainstream society.

Gunmen who accepted amnesty would be given a stipend of 65,000 naira ($433) a month for food and living expenses during the rehabilitation programme, which runs from Aug. 6 to Oct. 4, officials said.

The government has set up weapons collection and holding centres in each of the six Niger Delta states.

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Source: Reuters
Photo: Flickr (Fatdeeman)