Abuja—Ex-militant leaders in the Niger Delta region have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to renew the appointment of Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd) as the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).
According to them, Ndiomu has changed the narrative of the Amnesty Programme with his impactful and life-changing policies that hugely contributed to the maintenance of peace in the Niger Delta.
The ex-militant leaders who spoke exclusively to Mangrovepen.ng via telephone, also hailed Ndiomu for going out of his way to provide employment opportunities for ex-agitators who have completed their respective training.
On his part, the leader of the PAP third phase ex-agitators, Tonye Bobo who commended Ndiomu for reportedly paying scholarship debts to the tune of N7b also hailed him for clearing the debts owed consultants that worked with the Presidential Amnesty Office that have been owed in the past three years.
“He has been able to pay several contractors that have been owed for the past three years. The Presidential Amnesty Cooperative Society is a project where the Presidential Amnesty delegates will be receiving direct loans from the office itself.
“We will not be waiting for the banks to give us loans to start businesses to make us entrepreneurs. We, therefore, call on Niger Deltans to give him all the support,” he said.
Also speaking, Faye Ofori stated that
Ndiomu has unearthed so many fraudulent activities that have been going on in the Amnesty Programme for years.
His words, “now he has gone as far as reaching out to various agencies like the Civil Defence, Federal Civil Service Commission that will engage ex-agitators that have been trained so they can have a meaningful life.
“Also, he saw it fit to open a Cooperative account for the Amnesty Programme. We have one in Rivers State and Bayelsa State and we will be having one in Delta State. General Ndiomu has tried his best within this short period of time that is why we are asking the President to retain him.”
Nature Dumale Kigehe who is the Head of the PAP Strategic Communications Committee equally praised the leadership prowess of Ndiomu and averred that “he has performed credibly well. In the area of leadership, he has really done very well.”
He added that “as a matter of fact, I’m not surprised that he can outperform his predecessors in the area of leadership.”
