From Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin
 
 About 50 youths claiming to be ex-militants from the Niger-Delta region on Monday in Benin, Edo State, protested the non-inclusion of their names in the Presidential Amnesty Programme of the federal government.
 
The visibly angry protesters who stormed the Sapele Road headquarters of the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, pulled down one of company’s the main gates

Spokesperson for the protesters, Gabriel Ogbudje, said the protest was to force the federal government to accede to their demands.

Ogbudje accused the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and chairman on Amnesty Programme, Kingsley Kuku, of marginalisation and threatened to vandalise oil facilities in the region if the federal government failed to include them in the programme.

The management staff of NPDC were said to have engaged leaders of the protest in a close-door meeting and agreed to forward their demands to the federal government.

Efforts made to get the management of the NPDC to comment on the matter proved abortive.
 
Reacting to the issue, the head of Communications and Public Affairs of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Daniel Alabrah, dismissed the claim that some persons involved in the Niger Delta agitation were left out of the programme