BENIN CITY – For sustainable economic capacity building, Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has affirmed that the State Government is determined to collaborate with the Presidential Amnesty Programme on Niger Delta to curb youth restiveness and build their capacity through technical and vocational training, explaining that the state is anxious to calm the restiveness in the various communities.

The Governor made this known when he received the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh in Benin City Tuesday.
Explaining the zeal of his administration to engage the youths, Governor Obaseki said, “We are anxious to ensure that we calm the restiveness in our different communities. Fortunately, we in Edo don’t discriminate. We have an all-encompassing programme that will accommodate everybody. We will take special interest in the oil producing areas because of the neglect of the past. So, we will be very keen beyond what we are doing with the ANCHOR borrowers’ programme.
We will be very keen on working with you particularly on data and statistics for those communities, so that we can, working with your programme, pool the available resources together from the oil companies, from donour agencies, the World Bank programme so that we can have a coordinated approach to the challenges, particularly human development.”

Governor Obaseki harped on policy drift pointing out, “As you are also aware, our focus is shifting heavily towards technical and vocational training. We are working very hard to strengthen our technical colleges. This is an area we would like to cooperate with you. We want to assure you that we understand and appreciate the leadership role Edo is supposed to play or has traditionally played in the sub-region, and the role of this government is to re-enforce that and make sure that we continue to be the hub that brings the sub-region together.”
He further said, “Let me thank you immensely for this visit. Because of the importance we place on this programme, I felt that we should meet with you no matter how brief, to appreciate you, to appreciate the work you are doing, and to also make you understand that it is something we are very cognizant of, and a programme we are anxious to participate in, and make sure it succeeds. As you may have heard, we had a very disturbing situation over the weekend. Even though there has been a lot of agitations in the sub-region in the Niger, Edo has been relatively peaceful, but over the weekend, there was an incident in Gelegele where a line was bombed. And for us, that was not a good omen at all.”

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Speaking earlier, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig. Gen Paul Boroh said, “We are here from the presidential amnesty office as a continuation of the relationship we have with Edo State as one of our strategic partners towards ensuring stability in the Niger Delta Region and particularly to re-instate 30,000 ex-agitators that are captured in the programme. It is an ongoing programme that I took over in July last year. About 13,000 of the ex-agitators are left to be trained and empowered, but I am happy to say that Edo State is in partnership with us to train and empower 1000 ex-agitators from the ANCHOR borrowers’ initiative of the Central Bank. The Commissioner of Agric and the Presidential Amnesty Office have signed the MoU to that effect.”

According to him, “I think it is a milestone towards the resolution of the conflict in the Niger Delta because, if as many as one thousand persons are captured in terms of development in their skills and they are out of the creeks, it will encourage others who are still in the creeks to have hope that someday, they too will benefit from this gesture, which is one of the best alternatives to revamping our economy, that’s, plunging our youths into agriculture.”

The Coordinator concluded, “This is the basic reason why we came around to say, first and foremost we appreciate you, we appreciate God Almighty as well, who has made it possible for you to be on this seat. It is a hot seat because Edo State is the centre and the hub of economic activities in the Niger Delta. From time to time, the presidential amnesty office will be coming here to meet with leaders of the ex-agitators, and we shall be informing you each time we want to come. We are doing that because it is one of the safest states in the Niger Delta. This morning, we shall be empowering some of the ex-agitators in agriculture. That is the activity we are going to have today, and we feel it is respectful, it is proper that we meet with you.”
The Edo State Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon. Philip Shaibu, Secretary to Edo State Government, Hon. Osarodion Ogie, the State Head of Service, Mrs. Gladys Idahor and the Chief of Staff, Edo State Government, Mr. Taiwo Akerele were also present during the event.