The Mayor of Urhoboland and leader of ex-agitators in the Niger Delta region, Eshanekpe Israel, a.k.a Akpodoro has once again called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately sack the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP General Barry Ndiomu (rtd.)
Speaking at a meeting of stakeholders in Abuja on Tuesday, Mayor Akpodoro said, Ndiomu is former President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘work tool’ that should not be used by the current administration.
He wondered why President Tinubu chooses to retain the Coordinator who he described as an ethnic man in such a sensitive position that he noted is the umbrella of the development and growth of a region he described as multi ethnic with different cultural leanings.
According to him, the Amnesty boss wears multiple faces of loyalty: one to former President Buhari who appointed him, Babangana Monguno, the current National Security Adviser to the President, NSA Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, President Tinubu, his tribes men and women and several others, a development he noted impacts the operations of the PAP negatively.
Describing him as running his people’s agenda, Akpodoro said, the former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele’s experience and rot he bequeathed on the apex bank should be enough warning that, Buhari’s appointees should all be swept off any reasonable administration that is willing to make progress.
He further maintained that perhaps the Coordinator has put in his best into the management of the programme but was quick to say his best is not good enough for the Amnesty office adding that the Coordinator has gotten to his wits end and should be booted out of office while a fresh appointment should be made from another tribe in the region.
If the president could sack service chiefs, sack CBN governor, what is he waiting for to fire a man whose allegiance is to those who mismanaged Nigeria? Can’t President Tinubu rewrite our trajectory as a people? This is not the Tinubu we know. He should do needful by showing Ndiomu the exit door.
The Gbaregolor Ughelli South Local Government Area-born Mayor noted that the Amnesty boss has turned the office to a goldmine for those who appointed him while he’s a huge disappointment to the benefiaries of the programme particularly those from other ethnic leanings and the people of the region whose productive population ought to have been more developed than they are at the moment.
He noted that the current leadership of the programme has impoverished the supposed ex-militants, youths and persons leaving them worse than he met them.
He lamented the lopsided payment of stipends, scholarship to beneficiaries, non training of youths and persons who are supposed to be trained in accordance with the dictate of the act establishing the programme.
Akpodoro argued that such a man should not be allowed to stay a day longer in that office but should be shown the exit door as soon as the president took over the reins of power to pave the way for a new dawn in the programme.
A particular tribe he maintained, has been unwittingly made to develop what he described as erroneous sense of entitlement to the leadership of the programme to which he called on the federal government to ensure that the next appointment must come from Urhoboland which is said the largest humongous entity in the oil-rich Delta region.
Appointing only a particular tribe has injured the spirit and soul of the Amnesty Programme and now is when to right the wrong. The President must act now.
Equity and fairplay, the Mayor said, must be the rule in the administration and management of the programme on the premise of which he said every ethnic nationality in the region is entitled to the leadership of PAP as he called on the NSA to make haste in the appointment of a new helmsman for the programme and do away with that person whose solidarity and loyalty is for tribe and not Nigeria.
“The Amnesty Programme is no longer what it used to be. We have lamented, cried, and mourned enough over the deliberate mishandling of beneficiaries of the programme from other nationalities outside the Ijaw nation.
“Mind you, Ndiomu is not the first Ijaw man to be so appointed into that office. Kingsley Kuku, who was the pioneer coordinator of the programme, was a Nigerian in every facet of his leadership. He was a regional leader and very loyal to every group from the Niger Delta region.
“He did his best and ex-militants till date still miss him in that office while others came into the office with the mindset of ethnic supremacy to mismanage the goodwill bequeathed on the program.
“The NSA must act now. Not only sack, Ndiomu’s tenure must be thoroughly probed to ascertain the level of rot in that agency. We are privy to so many scandals including but not limited to being the sole contractor to the Amnesty office, but until the federal government takes the bull by the horn, we won’t stop lamenting the ills in that office,” the vociferous Mayor noted.
