Following reactions reportedly trailing the rumoured plan to appoint a retired army General of Urhobo extraction as the Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, by the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, a pressure group for Ijaw people, the Mayor of Urhoboland, Eshanakpe Israel a.k.a Akpodoro, has told the federal government to call the bluff of such group saying, they are noted for issuing empty threats.
The Mayor who spoke to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, said the IYC should be decent enough to know that the Amnesty Programme was not named after or created for only Ijaw nation stating that the programme was create to rehabilitate the then restive youths in the Niger Delta and that the programme is not an exclusive right of the Ijaw nation.
Akpodoro stressed that the office is not for only Ijaw people stating that from creation, the federal government has always appointed only Ijaw people back-to-back into the Amnesty office.
He noted the continuous appointment of Ijaw people into the office has given them the erroneous sense of entitlement to the office.
He said the presidential amnesty program is a regional office meant for the development of the youths in the region and the Ijaw race is nowhere superior to other tribes.
Mayor Akpodoro wondered what informed the rascality of the Binebai Princewill led group to the extent of issuing threats, adding that no group has the monopoly of violence as he called on the federal government to ensure an Urhobo man is appointed the coordinator of the Amnesty Programme.
He said: “The federal government had appointed several Ijaw people who mismanaged and eroded the principles and philosophy of that office.
He insisted that other nationalities had supported every Ijaw son appointed but it is an embarrassment that one group will come up to issue threats over a planned appointment of other tribe.
He noted: “The IYC is being goaded by tribal bigots in the Amnesty office and that we know. We know how they instigate protest and agitation from that same office the moment anything is not going in favour of the disgruntled ethnocebtric elements in that office.
“From the benefit of hindsight, I am aware that even the jittery managers of the Amnesty office instigate their youths into making such disgraceful noise in the media and this, the FG shouldn’t pander to their noise. Right from the appointment of Kingsley Kuku who pioneered the office, it has always being one Ijaw man or the other.
“Reactionary elements should allow the norm of ethnic monopoly to change because life should be live and let live. No tribe in the Niger Delta region is a conquered territory of other, therefore, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should appoint an Urhobo man into that office to teach lovers of slush funds how not to loot a regional office.
“The appointment of another tribe has long been overdue. Their feeding bottle is slipping off their hands hence the cry.”
Mayor Akpodoro warned that should other tribes be provoked into action, those he described as mischievous elements won’t enjoy the outcome.
