A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital has adjourned for hearing in a suit filed by fifty-six aggrieved Amnesty Programme beneficiaries, against the Attorney General of the Federation; Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Amnesty Programme Professor Charles Dokubo and Heritage Bank PLC.
The Plaintiffs had filed a lawsuit, with suit number FHC/PH/0/105/2019, praying the court to reinstate them as beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, as they were unlawfully removed from the programme after being duly registered, participated, concluded the demobilization, rehabilitation and integration programme from 2009 to October 2015.
The ex-warlords prayed the court that the action of the 1st and 2nd Defendants in denying them their rights and unilaterally delisting their names as beneficiaries is fraudulent, illegal and discriminatory.
They further prayed the court to place an order of mandatory injunction compelling the Defendants to remit with immediate effect, the sum of one hundred and Forty-one million, two hundred and forty-five thousand (141,245,000) naira as stipends and allowance being owed from October 2015 till March 2019, while demanding one hundred million (100,000,000) naira as damages.
The presiding Judge, Justice Isaq Sani, adjourned the case to 28th November for parties to be served hearing notice.
Counsels to the Defendants were not present in court.
Speaking to our reporter s, Counsel to the Plaintiffs, Asobiyata Ojenamah, said the Plaintiffs decided to seek legal actions against the Defendants because several efforts made to the amnesty office proved abortive.
“This beneficiaries were the people who came into the programme from the very onset in 2009, finished all the aspect of the programme and was receiving their stipends until 2015 when in the most bizarre fashion they were removed, since then several letters, several approaches that have been made to the amnesty office yield no positive response. It’s high time they come legally to the court and enforce their right.”
