The Mayor of Urhoboland and notable ex agitators leader, Eshanekpe Israel a.k.a Akpodoro, has, in furtherance to his earlier call on the federal government to sack General Barry Ndiomu (Rtd) who’s the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, advised the Amnesty boss to stop whining and witch-hunting him for his patriotic call.
He stated this, Wednesday, in response to a letter reacting to what he described as his patriotic call to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately sack the Ijaw-born helmsman of the Amnesty Programme in a chat with selected journalists in Abuja.
Reacting to his call, the PAP office had in a February 14, 2024-dated letter invited him to the office at the heels of an online publication by a group he described as unknown in the Niger Delta region led by one Boma Horsfall accusing him (Akpodoro) of playing ethnic card in his good intentioned call.
Horsefall, according to the Mayor, goofed in his “paid reaction” saying it was unfortunate that a self acclaimed doctor could not draw a genuine line between tribal jingoism and patriotism noting that his call was made in the best regional interest adding that the publication by the Niger Delta Integrity Group, NDIG draws a map of stark illiteracy and ignorance.
The vociferous Urhobo leader said, he is undaunted by the mischievous publication stressing that rather than attacking him, the PAP Administrator should come out clean and render account of his stewardship to the people he claims to serve.
The Wednesday letter that was written and signed by one Major OM Akpor who is said to be the Chief Security Officer to the embattled Ndiomu, the Mayor said would not be honoured due to what he deemed as gross insubordination.
He argued that such letter ought to have been written by an administrative officer or Ndiomu himself if really the Amnesty office has any iota of respect for the office of the Mayor of Urhoboland.
The CSO in his letter, Akpodoro noted, was acting a script that was beyond him administratively as he restated his call for Ndiomu’s sack adding that he has no regret whatsoever for calling on the National Securirty Adviser to the President to immediately present the case before the president for Ndiomu’s sack.
Pointedly, the Mayor who doubles as the President of the National Coalition of Niger Delta Ex-Agitators, NCNDE-A told Boma and his group to go back to the act establishing the intervention agency stating that operators of the political system in the past appointments have planted the seed of erroneous entitlement in Horfall, making them grow in the mischievous belief that the programme was the birthright of Ijaw nation.
Maintaining that the programme was established for the benefit of all ethnic nationalities in the Delta region, Akpodoro said such misinterpretation of the good intention of the founders of the programme should not be ordinarily misconstrued for pecuniary reasons.
He said that Nigeria is bigger than any person or group of persons as he warned that the President must not appoint a replacement for Ndiomu from Ijaw nation to avoid unsavoury development.
“We know them to be good at issuing empty threats to the government but we are of the opinion that the next Amnesty boss must come from another ethnic group.
” Let’s try new hands for the leadership of the PAP. This call is a clarion call to the federal government and not a million people in whatever guise can stop the current administration from appointing anybody to any position.”
Akpodoro further stated that in as much as the federal government is still interested in achieving the aims and objectives of the founding fathers of that regional agency, it is trite to appoint an Urhobo man to the position owing to their administrative prowess and honesty in handling national issues while standing national solidarity but not ethnic bigotry like beneficiaries of the programme had experienced over the years.
“The president must eschew lethergy in the sack of Ndiomu while a substantive coordinator is appointed immediately to take the programme out of the woods of mismanagement.
“I have no regret making a legitimate call and it is the honest truth. We know the sole contractor to that office and we know a handful of jobbers running around the coordinator. Nobody can intimidate anybody and no one not even Horsfall is more Niger Deltan than others.
“I stand by my call for the sack and thorough probe of the Amnesty Programme under the management of Ndiomu to ascertain the level of rot in that office. The federal government should avoid the CBN experience under Emefiele in the Amnesty office for the agency to breathe,”
He called on the Nigerian authority to caution Major Akpor not to allow himself to be misdirected by those who said wish to axiphiate life out of the Amnesty Programme and better still, he should be posted out of that office for a more professional engagement rather than usurping the position of a secretary in a civil organisation.
