Security-Nigeria - The Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN) has disclosed that the eight former militants that returned from Ghana where they could not complete their training on skills acquisition were not deported but asked to return home by the Nigerian authorities. The former militants ran into trouble when they were accused by the Ghanaian authorities of behaving in unruly manner. Chairman of FEHN, Allen Onyema, who spoke on the fate of the eight former militants, said they have shown remorse and promised not to go back to their old ways. Onyema said in Obubra camp, Cross River State that already, reformation classes are being held for the affected eight former militants so they could get on with other aspects of the amnesty programme.

"I was the one actually sent to go and see what was going on there. Actually in foreign lands there are cross cultural problems. Nigerians talk with high pitch. Ghanaians are mild tempered.

"So, when a Nigerian is talking ordinarily I want this or that, they take it to be violent and that is what happened with this.

"All the same, we decided to pull out eight of them who we felt would not be able to cope with the programme in Ghana. They were not deported. Deportation means that the country does not want to receive you. The Ghanaian government was okay. But we on our own decided that they should go and so that is how eight of them came back to Nigeria.

"They have been pleading. We have taken them through some formal induction to make them understand that in a foreign country there are some things you do not do. Those things may be normal here but you cannot do them outside. They are good boys now," Onyema said.

The FEHN boss said the transformational training on nonviolence given to the former militants have recorded huge success, saying, "the results have been fantastic. We have over 85 per cent success rate".

On the performance of the first batch for the year which graduated from the camp last Thursday Onyema said, "The amnesty programme is still a huge success. We are proud of this particular group. This is the particular group that initiated the entire amnesty programme. Because they were the first people pulled from the creeks to be trained in 2008 before the amnesty. It was the transformation that government saw in them that made them realize that these militants can be transformed. I can say that they are the forerunners. I give them every of them kudos. They have tried."

Bassey Inyang

Daily Independent/17/03/2011