Scores of former Niger Delta militants under the Federal Government amnesty programme on Wednesday staged a protest over the non-payment of their arrears.
The ex-militants staged the protest in Patani area of East-West Road, a boundary town between Bayelsa and Delta states.
The protesters were said to have blocked the popular expressway, a major gateway linking the South-South with other parts of the country.
The protest, said to have started early in the morning, according to sources, was still on at about 2pm.
Travellers and other road users from both ends of the expressway were stranded as a result of the gridlock caused by the protest.
An ex-militant, who gave his name only as ‘General’ Ebi, told our correspondent on the telephone that the protesters were ex-militants from Delta State.
Ebi, a Bayelsan ex-militant, said they (his colleagues from Delta) were protesting against the non-payment of their two-month allowances by the Federal Government Amnesty Office for October and November.
He urged the government to meet its obligations to the former agitators in order to avoid such a backlash in the future.
Quincy John, a student of Delta State University, Abraka, said though the protest was peaceful, the trauma that characterised the long hours in the gridlock was nasty.
“We were trapped in the traffic congestion for close to seven hours. We were afraid that the protesters might turn violent or resort to criminality. My parents were confused and I have been receiving ceaseless calls from them,” John narrated.
When contacted, Coordinator, Joint Media Campaign Centre, Joint Military Task Force in the Niger Delta, Col. Mustapha Anka, confirmed the protest.
Anka said as soon as the JTF got the information, the outfit detailed its troops from the 222 Batallion to go there.
He said when the troops got there, they appealed to the protesters to remove the barricade they had mounted on the Patani overhead bridge and urged them to follow due process in their agitation.
He confirmed to our correspondent that by 2pm, the protesters had vacated the road and the protest was over.
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