Nasarawa State government, today, announced a reward programme to encourage the surrender of arms by members of the Eggon group, Ombatse, and other persons suspected to have acquired arms illegally.
“But there is no amnesty programme. We have a judicial commission of inquiry still sitting on facts finding. Their recommendation is what we will implement. We cannot preempt their report; that will be prejudicial. We have to calmly wait for them to do their job and give us a report for implementation,” Hamza Elayo, state commissioner for Information told Daily Trust on phone, today.
The commissioner was reacting to our report of Wednesday where the state governor was reported to have announced that the state was considering an amnesty programme for members of Ombatse while answering questions by participants at the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) VI, at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) at Bwari, in Abuja.
Elayo said the state government will encourage members of the group to surrender arms “and get reward for doing so,” but added that “there cannot be amnesty because doing so will be to preempt the judicial commission of inquiry.”
He said the government is imploring security agencies to do their job by going after persons suspected to be bearing arms illegally, just as he said government will continue to support them and the traditional institution as well as other community leaders to begin the disarmament of armed persons in the state.
Daily Trust recalls that the state government had set up committees at the border communities with Benue State, to disarm armed persons in the bid to tackle the incessant Tiv/Fulani and other communal crises rocking much of the southern parts of the state.
daily trust
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