The Chronicle newspaper reports that the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) has waded strongly into the allegations of the influx of over 3,000 Nigerian militants from the Niger Delta into Ghana. According to our reports, the BNI, after the Chronicle’s publication, swiftly summoned the President of the Niger Delta Community in Ghana, Mr. Francis Okproko, last Friday to validate the claims of the number and militants trooping into the country. At the meeting with officials of the BNI, the Chronicle gathered that Mr. Okproko was asked to provide a lead to his claim to enable the government come to their aid. Mr. Okproko, according to the paper, in his humble submission, revealed that he exaggerated the numbers and that he had no evidence to support the allegations of militants from the Niger Delta entering Ghana. He indicated, however that he had registered an association in the country, with 100 members, with the view to advancing amnesty programs for Niger Deltans resident in Ghana. It was gathered that the last time his association met, with 16 members in attendance out of 100, they discussed, among others a means of getting their concerns to the government of Ghana, since the Nigerian High Commissioner was allegedly not being sensitive to their plight. Initially, he told the BNI that they used to meet at this private residence at Teshie, but he had now relocated to Achimota. “He told us that he has no evidence to support his allegations about the number of militants in the nation. He said he was just doing it to get the attention of Ghana government to help them get audience with the Nigerian authorizes, because the Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana has failed to address their welfare in Ghana. "He further told us that there are no militants among the people”, a source at the BNI hinted the chronicle. It was further gathered that Mr. Okporoko frankly stated that the basis of their allegations was because of the frustrations they had been going through at the hands of the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana. Francis, after the discussions, however pledged to provide the list of the names of his 100 members to the BNI by the close of day Monday. The Chronicle learnt that Francis told the officials that he was making the noise, because the Nigerian High Commission had shown a total lack of interest in their welfare. Mr. Okporoko confirmed in chat with the Chronicle that he was invited by the BNI to provide them proof of his allegations. According to him, he met the officials and insisted that when given the opportunity, he would supply the BNI with the numbers. Mr. Okproko had earlier raised the red flag over an influx of Nigerians from the troubled Niger Delta region into Ghana. This development, he said, makes him uncomfortable, knowing its implication for the country if these people are not properly managed. He had hinted The Chronicle that there were about 3,000 people from the region who had migrated to Ghana. The Niger Delta is an unstable area of Nigeria, often greeted with violence for access to oil resources, which leads to the regular vandalism of oil pipelines, kidnapping and other violent crimes by impoverished residents. Mr. Okproko noted that information reaching his good self indicated that some of the immigrants from the Delta Region had begun to form gang groups in the country. He noted that since the devil finds work for idle hands, he petitioned the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana about the development and the need to have these people properly managed, so they don’t foment trouble in the country, but according to him, all efforts to have audience with the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana, to have these people covered under a post amnesty program, had proved futile. “Should we wait until they start committing crimes before we do something?” he queried. But the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana dismissed the allegation, when the Chronicle contacted them on the issue. Mr. O. Adedapo Oyekamnmi, Minister of State at the Nigerian High Commission in Accra, told The Chronicle that there was no crisis situation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and that claims of the influx of Niger Deltans into Ghana has no empirical basis. “There is now peace, stability and tranquility in the Niger Delta, because all the known leaders for Movement for Restoration for Equity and for Justice in the Niger Delta that lead arms struggle against the Federal Government had laid down their arms and are communicating with the Nigerian government. That was the point we were at when our late president died,” he stated. He added that even after the death of the president, the Federal Government amnesty program and peace initiative in the Niger Delta had not changed. “So we are still perusing peace there; there is peace in the Niger Delta; there is relative calm and peace in the Niger Delta," he reiterated. Source: The Chronicle/Ghana