*Say traditional rulers making themselves praise singers of PAP
By. JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
The Chairman of First Phase Ex-Agitator’s Leadership Forum, Bayelsa State Chapter, Charles Kurobo, has said that despite recent threats by the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) Maj. Gen. Barry Ndiomu (rtd), aggrieved beneficiaries of the amnesty programme will continue to speak until issues relating to misappropriation bedeviling the programme are uncovered.
Mr. Korubo stated in Yenagoa while reacting to a statement in which the PAP Interim Administrator warned that those duly captured as PAP beneficiaries who are taking part in spreading false narratives against him and the amnesty office will be dealt with in accordance with the extant laws of the programme.
Explaining further, Korubo said that the enquiry of ex-agitators into the anomalies of the amnesty programme is not intended witch-hunt any individual as the PAP Interim Administrator makes it seem but to draw the attention of relevant authorities to how ex-agitators are denied access to vital information that will help them achieve economic integration and build their potentials to generate or gain employment.
He also alleged that if not for the support of monarchs from the Niger Delta region who are supposed to be catalyst for human capital and social development in the Niger Delta, Ndiomu wouldn’t have chosen to issue threat to well meaning beneficiaries of the programme who genuinely making contributions on how he can better improve and achieve the mandates of the programme.
He said “We will continue to air our concerns as we possibly can till attention is drawn to the precarious nature and style of the current administration of the PAP marred by defilement in the quest for social and economic integration in the phase of human capacity development.”
“Our enquiries are not ill-intended as the PAP makes it seems but the unexpected defenses, created to deny us access to vital information with respect to economic integration and why we still lack the potentials to generate or gain employment and develop better use of our resources through the spread of technological knowledge as promised by the program when we gave up arms in 2009 has remained invincible and we will not stop asking or be forced to silence even if a serving or retired military general is involved.”
“We complained of misappropriation, denial of benefits and other entitlements or cause for review where necessary and the interim Administrator of the PAP, General Ndiomu is quick to put the integrity and credibility of the Nigerian banks to question, when we all know that it is impossible to run two accounts with your BVN even if it’s just an alphabet missing from any of the details linked to the BVN!
“How did a digital portal created for a program with about thirty thousand (30,000) beneficiaries with a minimal ratio of digital and ICT knowledge, aid the PAP’s office under the current leadership to the discovery of the alarming figures allegedly discovered and steps that were taken to not just blocking but also bringing to book the banks, its officials and the beneficiaries criminated in the allegations?
“It is only clear that Ex-agitators ignorant or lacking access to the portal are by general Ndiomu’s standard not worthy of the benefits from the PAP even when the affected were captured since 2009, using such as an ace to exhibit calumny.
“The challenges before the leadership of the Ex-agitators forum is shocking! Having to manage those who have been denied training, empowerment and recently, monthly stipend, are always on our hills day and night and in most cases don’t see reasons when we say the PAP has maintained deaf ears but the best way forward is through peaceful resolution and we will continue to toe that path.
“We have waited and waited but the disconnect between the Amnesty office, its coordinator and the ex-agitators’ leadership is getting wider by each passing day and sadly, unwary Kings from the region, who are supposed to be catalyst for human capital and social development in the Niger Delta, have chosen the position of where the monkey prefers banana to money when presented with both not knowing the much needed bananas can be bought with the money!
“Gullible and hungry kings from the region with beclouded civility made themselves praise singers and media arsenals of the PAP where concerns are glaring, clustering Gen. Ndiomu and using him as a platform to expose their timidity and advertise ignorance.
“No sane father will ignore his own child or prefer the place of his child as in the case of some of our Kings who have so attached themselves to the crumbs from the table of the current interim Administrator. It’s indeed a shame but there’s, not ours.
“Who knows, they may have been blindfolded with, as unwary as they are, to the idea that they will constitute the body of another impending scam aimed at the so-called N1.5b scheme recently publish to create an impression of sensitive activities at the PAP’s office.
“Such kings identified with irresponsibility, incompetence and gross neglect of social, political and economic development of people from their kingdoms and the region large, like Ex-agitators in the case of the PAP can not and should not be trusted.
“The naked lies of the PAP under Gen. Ndiomu has further revealed his desperation to remain the interim Administrator and continue to sabotage the focus of the presidency instead of executing the blue print of the program that will impact the desired positivity while fostering a peaceful coexistence amongst genuine stakeholders, not some those adapted Kings who seek relevance amidst mediocrity and falsehood.
“What is right is right. Gen. Barry Ndiomu should not be ill-advised as we have see him to have derailed. Take President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s policies for example, even his enemies are now singing a different song because the direction is obvious and so are those in elective positions and appointments aligning with such policies for a desired future Nigeria and it’s citizens so longed for. Why then should an office directly under the presidency be allowed to navigate backwards or opposite?”
