AS Nigerians continue to react to the amnesty the Federal Government granted the Niger Delta militants, the founder and pioneer national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie has described the amnesty as an act of maturity, sympathy, affection and responsiveness on the part of the President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration.

The APGA chieftain said the fact that President Yar’Adua set aside his ego and granted the amnesty was a clear demonstration of sympathy, maturity, and statesmanship, stressing that the militants to whom the olive branche was extended, should accept it without much ado.

"I see the amnesty granted as a welcome development. If you remember, before it was granted, the crisis in the Niger Delta region was degenerating into a full scale civil war situation, and most citizens, especially the innocent civilians were cut in the cross fire," said Okorie in a brief telephone chat with Saturday Champion.

"Most Nigerians, including my humble self urged the president to grant amnesty to the militants as a quick step to achieving a solution to the protracted problem. And the fact that the president heeded the advice of well-meaning Nigerians is, to me, a demonstration of statesmanship," he further explained.

Okorie, however, said that amnesty was not enough solution to the crisis, but insisted that it was a good beginning to the solution of the trouble, noting that so far, he has not had any cause to doubt the credibility or practicability of the amnesty so long the militants and their leadership accepted it wholeheartedly.

But he expressed the fear that most Nigerians, in their usual manner, might condemn the amnesty without even giving it a proper thought. "What I was afraid of was the usual way Nigerians condemn government policies and programmes without allowing their implementations. So far, I have not had any cause to doubt the amnesty," he said, and enjoined critics to think twice before condemning the amnesty.

"They have to have a better thought before condemnation. They should tell us the alternative to amnesty. The truth is that no credible government will fold its hands while the country is gradually sliding into civil war. There must be basis for people to dialogue and reconcile," he said.