Warri — Ijaw people from some coastal communities in Delta State have accused soldiers attached to the security Joint Task Force (JTF) of looting and selling their property in the name of searching for militants in the traditional Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South-West Local Government Area of the state.

This allegation was one of revelations when members of the Presidential Committee on the Implementation of Amnesty, Disarmament and Integration for Niger-Delta yesterday met with Delta State stakeholders under very charged atmosphere at the Government House Annexe, Warri.

Speaker after speaker expressed apprehension about the whole concept and workability of the amnesty declared by Yar'Adua on June 26, 2009, and demanded for clarifications on the definition, apparent legislative loopholes and legal implications of the gesture by the government.

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan was at his diplomatic and persuasive end as he pleaded with hundreds of representatives of different segments of the society who filled to capacity the conference hall of the Government House to give the committee members their ears.

He explained that the issue of the amnesty granted to the militants in the region should not be unduly tied to the unfortunate event of May 13, 2009, which culminated in full-scale hostilities between the JTF and militants that had displaced thousands of Ijaw people in the coastal areas of the state.

President Umaru Yar' Adua was already working towards the declaration of an unconditional amnesty for the Niger-Delta militants and freedom fighters before the military campaign in the Gbaramatu communities, Uduaghan stressed.

"Let me state very clearly here that the amnesty declared by Mr. President is never a fallout or some ad hoc response to the unfortunate conflict of May 13. It is part of the strategic policies of the President Yar'Adua to address the fundamental problems of the Niger-Delta," Uduaghan pointed out.

He explained that evidence of the president's commitment to the Niger-Delta cause was the constitution of the Dr Ledum Mittee-led Technical Committee as well as the creation of the first-ever Niger-Delta Ministry, saying the president was in the process of presenting the technical committee's report to the National Executive Council (NEC) preparatory to producing a white paper before the May 13 incident in Gbaramatu area.

Uduaghan, who disclosed that his government would inaugurate a committee of the implementation of the amnesty in Delta State to be headed by a religious leader next week, noted that the choice of "one of our sons as the national co-ordinator of the presidential committee" further testified to Mr. President feelings for the Niger-Delta.

The tone of the first contributor to step forward signaled the palpable resentment and suspicion with which the people regarded the whole idea of and amnesty for militants in the state and region, when the speaker draw the amnesty committee Co-ordinator, Air Vice-Marshal Lucky Ararile and the Governor to "heavy militarization" of the entire venue of the meeting.

Apart for the unusually heavy security presence in and around the Government House Annexe Warri, which he said could not allow for relaxed and sincere articulation of the issues, the president of the Human Rights Defenders Organization of Nigeria (HURDON), Mr. Casely Omon-Irabor, noted that the implication of the presidential amnesty suggested that the Niger-Delta people were a conquered group that required some form of pardon in order to be re-integrated into the Nigerian society and Nation.

Other speakers, including constitutional lawyer, Dr Mudiaga-Odje, said the fact that the declaration of amnesty was not backed by any legislation could leave legal lapses and thereby jeopardize the exercise in future, when Yar'Adua or PDP may have been out of power.