Former spokesman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe has described as distasteful and shameful calls by some Urhobo indigenes and ex-agitators for the sack of the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), retired Major General Barry Ndiomu.
According to him, their call over allegations of being a ‘work tool’ of the past administration is petty and filled with ethnic bias.
Ekerefe who stated this on Thursday while responding to comments by one Eshanekpe Israel aka Akpodoro and some ex-agitators of Urhobo origin insisted that the call is myopic and lacks proper judgment in the appraisal of Ndiomu’s achievements.
He noted that the PAP is a security program initiated by the Federal Government under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to pacify the people of the region and proffer ways to empower them with skills and other initiatives toward achieving sustainable peace.
“So those calling for the sack of the PAP boss are inconsiderate and myopic. They have lost track of the achievements and the fact that PAP under General Ndiomu is sustaining the peace in the region and working assiduously to achieve the mandate of the program.
“With due respect to the genuine Urhobo leaders, the PAP is not a tribal program where critical issues are based on sponsored tribal sentiment rather than the multi-faceted campaign for improved development and growth of the region,” he said.
Ekerefe, who is the leader of the Niger Delta advocacy group called the New Era Movement (NEM) averred that since Ndiomu assumed office as PAP coordinator, the financial dealings of the program have been in tandem with the financial transparency laws of the federal government.
He maintained that Ndiomu has raised the bar in the areas of probity, accountability, and proper management of resources which have led to several achievements.
The youth leader informed those allegedly sponsoring the campaign against Ndiomu that the decision by President Bola Tinubu to retain him is based on his zeal to ensure that the amnesty program does not fall into the wrong hands that will derail the peace and tranquillity the region is enjoying.
Ekerefe warned “anti-Ndiomu advocates, especially Israel to desist from playing the ethnic card,” declaring that ), “no amount of blackmail and falsehood will stand.”
