More than 300 ex-agitators from the Niger Delta region have graduated from a technical and vocational skills initiative under the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
The interim administrator of the amnesty programme, Milland Dixon Dikio, said the graduates have been equipped with skills they need to make a living.
Some of the skills taught at the training center, which is situated in Agadagba-Obon, Ese-Odo local government area of Ondo State, include electrical and solar installation, tilling and interlocking installation, POV/PVC, painting and screeding.
Others are: air conditioning and refrigeration, aluminum fabrication, abrasive blasting, plumbing and pipe fitting/scaffolding and rigging, welding and fabrication, and brick masonry.
The training lasted for seven months.
Delivering the graduation lecture, former Vice-Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Professor Femi Mimiko, commended the amnesty programme for its efforts in promoting technical and vocational education in Nigeria.
The programme is also expected to assist the graduates in finding employment in various organisations.
The amnesty programme was put in motion in 2009 when former President Umaru Musa Yar’adua granted Niger-Delta militants amnesty, urging them to lay down their arms in the interest of peace and security.