A Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has adjourned till September 28, for hearing in the preliminary objection by the outgoing chairman of the implementation committee of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, challenging the suit  by some ex-militants against their non-inclusion in the amnesty programme of the Federal Government.

Kuku, in the preliminary objection, is challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the suit by the aggrieved ex-militant youths from Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states.

The ex-militants, Asenekir Oyile, Angiamaowei Oyindoubra, John Government, John Sawyer, Trydy Okpeke, Dollar Motor, Selebi Ayowei, Bobra Angese, Henry Gomeromo and Ekerebi Ombe in the suit, are contending that the Amnesty Committee erred by refusing to include them in the ongoing amnesty programme after series of resolutions from meetings with the past and present National Security Advisers to the President, Late General Owei Azazi and Col. Dasuki Sambo, respectively.

The ex-militants are asking the court to declare that they were former militants that had accepted amnesty under the Third Phase and surrendered their weapons to the Federal Government through the Amnesty Office in 2011 under the peace initiative of the Federal Government.

At yesterday’s hearing in the matter, trial judge, Justice H.A. Nganjiwa,  ruled that though the defendants, the Chairman of the Amnesty Committee and the Amnesty Committee, Kuku and the Attorney-General of the Federation, did not make an appearance, it will hear the preliminary objection by Kuku challenging the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case.

The aggrieved ex-militants are praying the court to compel the Amnesty Committee to approve reasonable slots for them as agreed at one of the peace meetings on December 19, 2011.

They also want the court to  compel the defendants to pay due allowances to the plaintiffs and their foot soldiers from March, 2012 until the plaintiffs are fully settled under the Niger Delta Amnesty Committee.

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