Group Hails Buhari for Appointing Ndiomu as Amnesty Programme Boss

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Niger Delta Rights Assembly (NDRA) says the appointment of Maj.-Gen. Barry Tariye Ndiomu (retd), as the interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), is a blessing to the Niger Delta region and the nation in general.

The group, in a statement, said President Muhammadu Buhari overlooked primordial sentiments and self-serving lobbyists in his choice of Ndiomu, whom it said has brought “sanity and order into the Programme.”

The NDRA comprises mainly youths drawn from Niger Delta states.

In the statement issued Tuesday and signed by its president, Chief Israel Bokromo, the group lauded Ndiomu for tackling the programme’s challenges.

“We recognise the pressure mounted on President Buhari to discontinue the programme by persons who do not mean well for the nation and Niger Delta people in particular. The president did not only snub the lobbyists, he appointed Ndiomu, a man of proven military discipline and integrity,” the group’s statement said.

NDRA commended the Buhari administration for involving critical stakeholders in the Niger Delta in maintaining peace, ensuring the security of oil and gas infrastructure, and stemming the tide of oil theft in the creeks.

The group noted that the culture of probity, accountability and transparency instituted by Ndiomu was yielding anticipated results, especially the exposure of monumental fraud bordering on flawed payment systems and contract inflation.

It listed some of the achievements recorded by Ndiomu to include earning the confidence and support of Buhari, timely payment of monthly allocations, sustaining peace in the region leading to increased production of crude oil at an average of 1.67 million barrels per day, new policy initiatives on cooperative, completion of five vocational training centres and data sanitisation to verify genuine ex-agitators, among others.

The group noted that in barely six months, Ndiomu saved PAP over N1.5 billion from inflated contracts and has effectively positioned the programme towards achieving its core mandate of addressing ex-militants’ needs rather than meeting the needs of a few emergency contractors who lack both competence and capacity.

It urged the incoming government to sustain the culture of probity and fiscal responsibility instituted by Ndiomu to stave off agitations in the future.