I welcome and endorse completely the amnesty announced by the Federal Government to our youths, who were forced by certain grave circumstances to engage in violent acts in the Niger Delta region of the country.

I wish to especially thank Mr. President for taking the bull by the horn in accepting to adopt this policy, which I believe will go a long way in easing the crisis in the region. I am impressed by President Yar'Adua's steadfast commitment to bring peace and stability to the region. So far, he has taken positive steps, that has been extremely encouraging and should be supported.

The setting up of the Ministry of Niger is a remarkable achievement and from the plans of the ministry there is a lot of hope. The Niger Delta Development Commission is being strenghtened. The work of the Niger Delta technical committee has been completed and we are hopeful that shortly the recommendations of that committee shall be implemented in full.

With the Amnesty, a major turning point in the Niger Delta issue has been reached. It gives everyone an opportunity to finally make a distinction between the genuinely aggrieved and the criminal elements. I, therefore, wish to urge our youths in the creeks, to accept this offer, by ending all violent acts and damage of the nation's economic assets.

Apart from the economic loss, the damage has seriously polluted our waters and this is not in the interest of our people many of whom depend on fishing for thier livelihood. Our Government in Delta state has made a public commitment to assist in rehabilitating you and to make it easy for you to be re-integrated into the society.

We are committed to the funding and repositioning of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) to be able to meet the aspirations of majority of the people of the oil producing and oil impacted areas.

I wish to appeal to our leaders at all levels of our society to support this gesture, so that we can all bring normalcy to our communities. I ask the International Oil Companies to see our people as partners and to carry them along, in every way necessary. I urge the International Community to support the federal government action by cooperating in halting the flow of small arms into the region.

Our people have suffered long enough. One of the sad fall-outs of the recent violent confrontations that took place in the creeks was the unfortunate deaths and destruction that became the lot of many innocent people.

We all have a duty to spare them further agony. The Amnesty represents the best chance to end the crisis. Now is the time to return to dialogue and peaceful negotiations. The President has shown he is prepared to engage actively in bringing peace to our region; we should trust his judgment and leadership.

Dr. Emmanuel E. Uduaghan
Governor, Delta state