Nigeria: All the News and Information

A QUIET lobby of the National Assembly by the Presidency may have begun over a planned expenditure of nearly N20 billion to deal with amnesty and other Niger Delta militancy issues. And it emerged yesterday that the government might be considering scaling down the number of militant camps from nearly 50 to less than 20.

 The Implementation Committee of the Presidential Amnesty for Niger Delta Militants yesterday released the details of the amnesty, saying that the actual start of the 60 days for the proper take-off of the amnesty is August 6, 2009. It also revealed that the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Henry Okah, who is undergoing trial in Jos, will remain in custody until President Umaru Yar'Adua briefs the governments of Angola and Equatorial Guinea, who were involved in his extradition to Nigeria, of the amnesty details.