Stakeholders under the aegis of Concerned PAP Patriotic Intellectuals have thrown their weight behind the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Program, retired Major General Barry Ndiomu.
The stakeholders described him as the best man to have manned the intervention agency.
In a statement signed by Dr. Tam Godspower Odogwu, the stakeholders said Ndiomu is still finding solutions to the series of challenges faced by the program.
They said this while responding to a vote of no confidence passed on the amnesty boss by leaders of ethnic nationalities, wherein Ndiomu was accused of derailing from the original founding purpose of the programme.
The statement reads thus, “Our attention as concerned PAP Patriotic Intellectuals/Stakeholders in the Niger Delta amnesty project has been drawn to a clandestine publication making rounds on non-conventional media platforms as regards the current leadership and we are compelled to respond swiftly to end this campaign of calumny before undue escalation.
“As genuine and critical stakeholders in the Niger Delta Project, we need to always act as the true conscience of the PAP beneficiaries and others for the betterment of the region; therefore, the ongoing spirit of Ph.D. (PULL HIM DOWN) has to be discouraged, discontinued and discountenanced by all well-meaning leaders and selfless stakeholders in the struggle.
“For the emphasis, the development of Niger Delta and success of the Presidential Amnesty Programme should not be reduced to parochial analysis upon which self-aggrandizement flourishes.
“This sense of parochialism has reduced the rationality of some actors and their ability to see anything good in their targeted victims.
“The publication in reference can only be a product of either loss of rationality on the side of the conveners of the inglorious parley in Benin and authors of the malicious publication or acting the scripts of their political sponsors.
“For the first hypothesis, where rationality is missing, human reasoning becomes a tool for pushing individual principles and propagating administrative style that runs counter to any known standards (entitlement syndrome); and for the hypothesis on sponsorship, it is bare unintelligent to choose a path of political servitude to powerful and manipulative political class forever.
“In essence, an impression must be corrected in the condemnable publication attacking the amnesty boss, Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd) who was accused of derailing from the original philosophy and vision of PAP.
“The fact remains that the original vision of the Programme was long derailed before Ndiomu took over the leadership of the Amnesty Programme.
“Indeed, the integration and reintegration phases of the Programme were short-changed and hijacked by contractors and big politicians; as the majority of those being trained were brought from outside the struggle because the plan was to just give them deceitful one week lecture and dash them some token out of the empowerment money and pocket the rest.
“The same thing happened in the educational scholarship where the critical beneficiaries were left out in several phases.
“Therefore, it is only fair and just to commend and encourage the man, Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd) who has been trying to clean up the mess in the programme rather than casting aspersions on him.
“For clarity purposes, General Ndiomu within the short period of his administration of PAP has been able to restructure and redirect the reintegration phase into a self-development and entrepreneurial scheme with the introduction of the Presidential Amnesty Programme Cooperative Society Loan which will go a long way in positively affecting the serious and development-oriented beneficiaries.
“A sound mind should ponder on the fact that someone who doesn’t want the progress and betterment of his people will not think of establishing or introducing a long-term loan opportunity for the same people.
“The attack by the team of an infamous group led by Michael Tega Igharoro, alleging that since the inception of Maj. Gen. Ndiomu as the Amnesty coordinator, the noble intention of the programme has since been defeated is not only baseless but cruel and unjust.
“The Ndiomu administration is actually the true amnesty easing the pains of the long-suffering of the Niger Delta ex-agitators, with the ongoing PACOSOL LOAN which all well-intentioned and rational ex-agitators should channel their energies to a call to the Presidency to always provide special funds for the cooperative to enable it to go round to all beneficiaries.
“Without mincing words, Gen. Ndiomu remained the one and only amnesty administrator who has come to do something different to help the lives of beneficiaries to access bulk money for businesses, especially in farming.
“We therefore use this medium to educate this misled group to desist from attacking an innocent and performing coordinator in General Ndiomu which we considered a crude manifestation of dirty politics, the type that has kept the region and its people backward for too long.
“In terms of performance, Ndiomu has proven to be one of the best that has ever led the Programme, we should be encouraging and supporting him to continue his good work. “United we stand, divided we fail.”
