BNC to FG: Explain marginalisation of Bini in Amnesty Programme

THE Bini National Congress, BNC, a socio-cultural organisation in Edo State, has condemned what it described as deliberate exclusion of the Bini ethnic nationality from the Federal Government’s Amnesty Programme. In a letter by BNC’s President, Aiyemenkhue Edokpolo, addressed to the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, BNC noted that the deliberate exclusion of Bini youths from the Amnesty Programme was provoking youths into self-help and hostilities. According to the letter, “we write to formally place on record our condemnation of the unintelligent, malicious orchestration, vexatious and provocative ploy to provoke Bini youths of the seven oil and gas resources and pipelines bearing local government areas of Edo South senatorial district into unwholesome militancy, with the unpleasant consequences of complicating the terse insecurity in Niger Delta region.  “The Bini ethnic nationality is arguably the ‘chief parent’ of all ethnic groups in South-South Nigeria with a flourishing history and monarchy in Guinness Book of Records dating back to over 700 years of pre-western civilization. “We have watched with consternation a pseudo-policy of state which lends credence to a conclusion that our ethnic nationality has been formally excluded by the Federal Government from benefiting from the poverty alleviation and human capital development objectives of the Amnesty Programme. “It is to forestall this clear and potent danger that BNC members and trustees decided to formally intimate you with a view to obtaining unambiguous clarifications. “For the records, the Bini occupies about 60 percent of Edo State landmass and account for 58 percent of the state’s total population, spread across the seven local government areas of Edo South senatorial district with not less than 89 percent Bini ancestral indigenes and Bini-speaking culture. “On behalf of these people we advance the allegation of exclusion from the lofty programmes of your office and seek immediate and unconditional restitution and or compensation for the past misdeeds and stereotype as non-relevant factor.