Port Harcourt—Some agitators under the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) have threatened to occupy the amnesty office to demand the immediate sack of the interim Administrator of the Programme, Maj-Gen. Barry Ndiomu (rtd), over alleged non-payment of six months’ allowances.
The group said to comprise the first, second, and third phases of PAP, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to remove Ndiomu and replace him with another.
This was contained in a communique signed by Gen. Paul Johnson and Solomon Adu, Chairmen, Phase 2, Bayelsa and Delta State after a meeting in Port Harcourt, Daily Post reports.
The ex-militants accused the PAP boss of delisting names of real beneficiaries of the programme and refusing to pay the stipend of over 7,000 delegates going to over six months without any reasonable claims.
In their words: “Ndiomu has shown himself as an enemy of the Niger Delta, he has succeeded in causing division among our people with the sole aim to divide and rule.
“In a recent publication in an online media, some stakeholders hailed Ndiomu on floating cooperatives to empower Ex-agitators. If we may ask; who are these Ex-agitators that will be empowered by Ndiomu through these white-elephant schemes? Is it the ones he refused to pay their monthly stipends going to over six months? He is then a joker.
“Barry Ndiomu should know that the presidential Amnesty program was solely established to cater for the Ex-agitators, doing otherwise by leaving out some of the Ex-agitators is for the detriment of the Nigeria state as a whole and the Niger-Delta in particular.”
However, the Presidential Amnesty Programme has urged ex-agitators whose stipends payment were suspended due to Bank Verifications Number (BVN) irregularities to ignore a widely circulated message urging them to assemble at the PAP office for a formal meeting.
In a statement signed by the Special Assistant on Media to the interim Administrator of PAP, Freston Akpor on Thursday, the Amnesty office denied being aware of any such meeting and advised ex-agitators to ignore such a message.
The statement reads:
“The attention of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has been drawn to a widely circulated message urging ex-agitators whose stipends payment were suspended due to Bank Verifications Number (BVN) irregularities, to assemble at the PAP office for a formal meeting.
“The PAP hereby states that it is not aware of the purported meeting and strongly advises the affected ex-agitators to ignore any such messages.
“In this regard, all concerned ex-agitators are reminded that the PAP is a national security programme, and as beneficiaries, they are expected to eschew actions capable of jeopardizing the country’s security. This is more imperative given the nation’s current political climate.”
The PAP however warns that “anyone embarking on such unauthorized disruptive assembly, does so at their own risk and would have themselves to blame if apprehended.
“As have been stressed through various channels, the situation around the multiple accounts tied to single BVN’s borders on financial crimes and the matter is being investigated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
“Recently, executives of the affected banks were invited by the ONSA to explain their involvement in the matter due to the legal and national security ramifications.
“The PAP office is awaiting the outcome of this ongoing investigation and would resolve the matter thereafter and on the directives of the NSA.”
