From Aviashima Toom, makurdi
Ex-Criminals who recently surrendered their arms to the amnesty program of the benue state government would be assisted to obtain lawful means of livelihood, Governor Ortom disclosed this yesterday.
The Governor who said this while declaring open a three-day orientation workshop for the beneficiaries at the Royal Choice Inn, Makurdi, said resource persons have been carefully selected from relevant fields to interact with beneficiaries of the program.
He said their interests, potentials and skills would be identified during the workshop after which they could be assisted to obtain new and lawful means of livelihood.
“Let me charge all the beneficiaries never to look back into the dark past but rather look forward to the bright future ahead,” he said.
“Anyone who backslides would find his or herself in a worse situation, even the law prescribes harsher punishment for those who had enjoyed pardon.”
Governor Ortom stressed that henceforth, rehabilitation of the beneficiaries would continue alongside massive arrests of possessors of illegal arms.
He emphasized that in the face of dwindling state resources only partnerships with the organized private sectors could deliver on massive jobs, wealth and opportunities hence the need to secure the state for such to thrive.
Speaking at the workshop, President of Full Gospel Revival Crusade in Nigeria, Pastor Thomas Igyah, enjoined the beneficiaries to make genuine repentance and reconciliation with God in addition to restitution.
He said only such could free them from the blood of the innocent souls they had wasted.