FG to acquire fish ponds for N’Delta ex-militants

The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) says it is partnering with the Bayelsa State Government to revive the moribund 500 fish ponds in the state to be used as a training facility for Niger Delta ex-agitators on fish farming.

The interim administrator of the programme, Colonel Milland Dixon Dikio (retd), who disclosed this in Yenagoa when he visited the commander of Operation Delta Safe, a joint military task force operating in the Niger Delta region, Rear Admiral Aminu Hassan, said the idea was part of the three identified platforms of food security, maritime security and transport proposed by the federal government to promote peace in the region.

He said the PAP reorganised the training approach to make ex-agitators successful entrepreneurs through the model of train, employ and mentor.

He announced that ex-agitators, who had already acquired skills, would be constituted into cooperatives and attached to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on three identified platforms of food security, maritime security and transport.

According to him, amnesty delegates, after their meeting in Agadagba, resolved to tame kidnapping and piracy on the waterways, that is why PAP seeks areas of collaboration with the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) on maritime security.

“There are 500 ponds of fish farm in Bayelsa that are moribund. We are working with the government to activate the ponds to use them as training for our boys to increase the employment potential in the region,” he said.

Earlier, Rear Admiral Hassan attributed the calm in the Niger Delta to Dikio’s constant engagement with ex-agitators and his prompt payment of their monthly stipends.