<span;>Former Militant Leaders from the Six States of the Niger Delta region have faulted the call by some Elders and Stakeholders from the region for the replacement of Major General Tariye Barry Ndiomu (rtd) as the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) over allege divided attention and distraction due to his recent appointment as the Chairman of the 11-man committee on the Special Investigative Panel on Oil Theft in the region.
<span;>According to the Former Militant Leaders under the aegis of the Niger Delta Advocate for Peace Good Governance and Anti-Corruptiob Network Campaign, the call by the Elders and Stakeholders lack merit, ill-advised and mischievous as the key stakeholders including the beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme and Ex-Agitators were not consulted.
<span;>The Former Militant Generals, after an emergency meeting held in Abuja and presided over by the National Coordinator, NAPGGAN, Comrade Fiawei Pathfinder along with the Deputy National Coordinator, NAPGGAN, comrade Bekes Apere, and the Secretary of the group NAPGGAN, Comrade AK Peters, the calls by the leaders under the Movement for the Sustainable Development of the Niger Delta, MSDND, led by one Ayebatekena Olodi and Chief Godwin Pere- Ebikabowei, is suspicious and is a clear attempt to put a wedge in the cordial relationship between the National Security Adviser, NSA, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd.) and Major General Tariye Barry Ndiomu (rtd) led Amnesty programme.
<span;>The NAPGGAN debunked all the claims made in the purported letter addressed to the NSA on Monday by the Movement for the Sustainable Development of the Niger Delta, MSDND, led by one Ayebatekena Olodi and Chief Godwin Pere- Ebikabowei declaring that despite the fact that Major General Tariye Barry Ndiomu (rtd) is a respected son of Ijaw Nation,“Gen Ndiomu has been carefully selected and appointed by Mr President which the NSA is fully aware of his pedigree and untainted track record based on his wealth of expertise skills and experience while serving as a military officer”.
<span;>“This call false claims by this disgruntled unknown group is quite unfortunate diminishing and mischievous because all they have published on the pages of newspapers are all lies, been sponsored by some set of corrupt minded politicians who are deliberately out to tarnish the image of Gen Ndiomu and wanting to find their way into the amnesty office through the back door in other to continue their corrupt practice which Gen Barry Ndiomu have already blocked in the amnesty office, and out of frustration they are using such cheap blackmail to seek public attention”.
<span;>“They are not speaking for the Niger Delta people neither are they speaking for the over 30,000 Ex Agitators cut across the nine states who are undergoing training in the amnesty program in the region, but they are just being used and mischievous to cause disaffection, and whatever they have vomited on the pages of newspapers are to be discarded and ignored because they are errand paid boys of detractors who does not mean well for the presidential amnesty program under Barry Ndiomu to succeed neither did they mean well for the overall Development of the Niger Delta region as a whole”.
<span;>“The NSA cannot be fooled into such childish mere cheap blackmailers who are known paid attention seekers that are jobless fellows of disgruntled elements roaming around in the street of Yenagoa, and on a good day they are not the one to advice the NSA what to, interns of appointing Ndiomu to head the 11-man presidential Special investigative committee on Oil theft is to ensure that criminality in the oil sector is curbed, because he the NSA, knows the Competence, Capability and the Capacity of Gen Barry Ndiomu Rtd. They are too small to teach NSA his job and tell him what to do and what not to do as an experienced intelligent military officer”.
<span;>“This is a shame to this disgruntled group led by one Ayebatekena Olodi and Chief Godwin Pere- Ebikabowei to write such a mischievous diminishing and malicious defamatory letter to the NSA. We call on the well-respected National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno to shred and ignore that nonsense pieces of words called letter, because it is baseless and there is no single outta of truth in it, and all the contents are just fabricated unfounded lies from the pit of hell.”
According to the leaders of the Ex-agitators, “the approach of General Barry Tariye Ndiomu to reorganize restructured sanitized transformed and to repositioned the PAP is highly commendable and appreciated by all well-meaning Niger Deltans and all sundry, and this kind of reform has never been witnessed since the programme started the previous PAP Coordinators in the history”.
And for the short time Barry Ndiomu been in office there has been serious of tremendous reforms taking place in the Amnesty office, wish has brought about sanity and discipline put in place along with cardinal direction to achieve the much desired goals of transparency and accountability in the entire PAP, off which the ex-agitators themselves has publicly attest to for timely prompt payment of monthly stipends direct to the various beneficiaries bank accounts and in the area of staff welfare and allowance Gen Barry Ndiomu does not play with such because as a top military officer who have led troops of officers to win within and outside the country in so many fora knows the value of the welfare of staff and he knows that in every Organization to succeed excellently you must take the welfare of the staff very seriously as the number one point of duty, and that is what Barry Ndiomu is known for and he does not play with that”.
“First of all, we want to seize this opportunity to re thank and appreciate President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Security Adviser for this gracious appointment of Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu as Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, and also for deeming fit to carefully select Ndiomu to head the 11 man Special investigative Presidential committee on Oil theft, this speak volume very laud and It shows trustworthy Competence Capability, and it is a good omen to we the Ijaw People and a welcome development to the Niger Delta people in particular”.
“Being a trained military officer and a lawyer and a technocrat who is driven by passion competency capability and patriotism, Gen Ndiomu has been able to work round the clock, to come up with three pillars of transformation, transparency and accountability to reposition PAP in other to achieve the aim of establishing the program by President Umaru Musa Yaradua of blessed memory on the 25th of June 2009. “He is a man whose corruption-zero tolerance has sharpened the entire system”.
“General Ndiomu has requested a partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other foreign agencies in collaboration with through the minister for overseas education and vocational training for Niger Delta ex-agitators. He is clearing outstanding debts by his predecessors as we speak”.
Gen Ndiomu has resolved and is working hard to change the narrative to improve employment of just more than one per cent of those who have been trained and also went to study on scholarship as he is engaging with heads of government agencies, ministries, head of the civil service of the federation, the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian custom service, inspector general of police for Special recruitment space for the ex-Agitators, and with the commandant of the Nigerian civil defence corps, the Chief of army staff all these are steps Ndiomu has taking so far in other to secure a lifetime lucrative job opportunity of employment to occupy the ex-militants after training program, and with this laudable right steps Ndiomu has taken so far we believe that this will soon begin a positive result as soon as possible.
“He also approached the Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, to galvanize the region with ICT based training and capacity building through ICT, of our youths in the region”, he stated. Therefore the group call on the general public with all well-meaning Niger Deltans to disregard and ignore the letter that was addressed to the NSA.”
