AMNESTY AND CONFLICT REDUCTION: A CASE STUDY OF THE RIVERS STATE PROGRAMME IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS

This study examined Rivers State amnesty programme and conflict reduction in Local Government Areas in Rivers State. Two specific objectives and two research questions guided the study. Descriptive survey and case study research designs were adopted for the study. The population of the study is made up of the 1,284,010 residents of Ogba/Ebgema/Ndoni Local Government, Ahoada East Local Government Area and Asari Toro Local Government Areas of Rivers State. The sample size for the study consists of 1560 respondents. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample size. Data used for this study were both primary and secondary data. A structured questionnaire items containing 10 items titled: “Rivers State Government Amnesty Programme and Conflict Reduction Questionnaire (RSGAPCRQ)” was used for data collection. The questionnaire was subjected to reliability of internal consistency using Cronbach alpha test for the two clusters of the instrument. The computation gave reliability indexes of 0.72 and 0.76 with mean reliability index of 0.74. This showed that the instrument was reliability. The data gotten from the field was first collated into tables to ease analysis. Descriptive statistics (simple percentage) was used to answer the research questions. The results showed that Rivers State amnesty programme improved political stability by improving youth bodies’ politics and governance; reduction of violent political rivalry; increasing youth participation in politics; and improved peaceful functioning of different political groups in the areas. The results also showed that people are of the view that continuous youth empowerment, continuous women empowerment, continuous registration of youth bodies; and establishing database for unemployed persons can be used to prevent the reoccurrence of armed conflict sin across the Local Government Areas in Rivers State. Based on the findings and conclusions drawn, it was recommended among others that Rivers State Government should establish a database for unemployed persons in the State and update such frequently. This would enable the government plan well how to empower the idle minds