A former Niger Delta militant group under the auspices of the Second Phase Presidential Amnesty Programme has dismissed the alleged threat to shut down the Central Bank of Nigeria’s branches in the Niger Delta.
The Chairman of the Second Phase in Bayelsa State, Ebina Salvation, in a statement on Saturday, discountenanced his group from a statement purportedly written by the factional leader of the programme, Stephen Ebisintei.
Ebisintei’s group was said to have threatened that they would shut down all the CBN branches in the region over the failure to pay the arrears of their stipends.
Salvation restated that the Amnesty Office, under the leadership of Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh (retd.), was doing well. He said, therefore, that they should not be blamed for the delay in the payment of their stipends.
He stated, “We, therefore, describe the allegations of the faction as false, baseless, mischievous and wicked. The allegations lack substance and should be thrown to the dustbin of history by all right thinking persons.
“We, therefore, urge members of the group to discountenance Stephen Ebisintei’s display of falsehood, which is a figment of his imagination and that of his co-travellers.”
Salvation, a director of the Bayelsa State Environmental Sanitation Authority, maintained that the CBN was not an Amnesty Phase 2 office but a bank accountable and rendering services to all Nigerians, both nationally and internationally.
He, therefore, called on the security agents to be at alert. He urged them to find out from the Amnesty Office the recognised leadership of the phase to enable them to stop people from using the name to issue unnecessary treats and publications.
He said, “That is the only way to hold people responsible if anything happens. Our leadership is enlightened, reasonable, law abiding and has the respect for elders and the government,” he stated.
