The pioneer President, Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, Dr. Felix Tuodolo, has said that Niger Delta leaders are excited about the ongoing war against corruption in the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) initiated by the current Interim Administrator of the programme, Maj.Gen. Barry Ndiomu (retd).
Tuodolo, who spoke in Port Harcourt, observed that Ndiomu was confronted with many corrupt practices when he assumed office especially in the area of payment of stipends of ex-agitators.
He described as unfair the bulk payments of stipends into one bank account and wondered why one person would use a single account to collect stipends of 30 persons.
Tuodolo said efforts of Ndiomu to clean the augean stable had made him vulnerable to attacks and criticisms adding that the interim administrator had also initiated great programmes to uplift PAP.
He said: “The dust mostly raised against the present administrator is not necessarily the programmes he is coming up with, they are great Programmes. What people are fighting him for is the corruption that was discovered in the Amnesty office, which he came to meet.
“So much corruption, some persons in their bank account receive maybe up to 30 payments, 30 names are attached to one account, it’s unfair.
“So Ndiomu is fighting that and he has the backing of the leaders of the Niger Delta people because this thing should spread and not one or two persons holding on to the benefits”.
Tuodolo said the Niger Delta leaders were also in support of the notion that trained and empowered ex-agitators should graduate from the programme instead of remaining in the scheme because of stipends.
He described as commendable the agricultural projects and cooperatives being established by Ndiomu to enable ex-agitators become self-reliant and graduate from PAP.
He said: “And that’s why they (ex-agitators) should graduate and not remain where they are since 2009 and still receive the same thing.
“Even the programmes Ndiomu is setting up, the agricultural projects, the coorporatives if they are geared towards graduating people to go into society properly then it is welcome.
“These are some of the things in the right direction, which should also be geared towards graduating our people so that more persons can come to benefit from it.
“I think he is doing his best and is trying, especially the aspect of fighting corruption which we the leaders of the Niger Delta support, we support the fighting of corruption in that place”.
Tuodolo further observed that PAP under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had achieved its primary aim of sustaining the peace in the Niger Delta.
He said: “In terms of government, government has achieved the design of the purpose of the amnesty programme largely. This is because the programme like I said is to bring about peace so that oil production will go up.
“And as at that time, oil production went very low, low as up to one million barrels per day, but as at today production is between 2.2 and 2.5 million barrels per day. So production has gone up. So government is achieving the purpose of the programme to a large extent for its self.”
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