The leadership of the First Phase Forum of beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) have commended the Interim Administrator, Major-General Barry Ndiomu (rtd) for his excellent administration of the Programme.
The leaders who gave the commendation recently while presenting an award to him for his sterling leadership qualities at the PAP Headquarters in Abuja, also made a patriotic call for him to be retained to enable him successfully implement his creative initiatives that are positively impacting the lives of ex-agitators.
Spokesman of the First Phase of the Ex-agitators, Joshua Opia noted that the PAP Co-operative Scheme in particular, is the best thing that has happened since the establishment of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
“Most of us with businesses have expanded our operations through the loans and we are happy to note that the majority of our colleagues are also changing their situation with the loans,” he said.
“We know this is a pilot scheme and we know you have more plans for us. You and your team are square pegs in square holes and we appreciate your policy decisions,” he added.
They particularly commended General Ndiomu for his consultative and engaging approach in relating with critical stakeholders of the region, which has created an atmosphere of peace in the hitherto restive oil-rich region.
The ex-agitator said those sponsoring negative articles across blogs and other online media against the PAP, are those who are affected by ongoing reforms, and those who have vested interest in taking over the PAP top job.
While noting that these persons do not represent the real interest of the ex-agitators, he urged the Presidency and the National Security Adviser (NSA) to be more in touch with (them) the leadership of ex-agitators who dully participated in the disarmament Process for real facts on happenings in the Niger Delta, and not those who fed fat illegally from the Programme.
Receiving the ex-agitators, General Ndiomu thanked them for the honour done him and assured that he will continue to do his best to turn around the fortunes of the Programme and the welfare of the direct beneficiaries.
“We have to correct those things which were wrongly done such as the scholarship programme under which deployments were made without financial commitment,” he said.
General Ndiomu explained that instead of an outright cancellation, “we adopted the scholarship and cleared the debts at the end of March this year and now we are awarding fresh scholarships for beneficiaries to further their education”.
The PAP boss urged ex-agitators to be more assertive of the ownership of the Programme, which was specifically created for them.