Ex-agitators' leader, Salvation Ibena Rufus, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to completely ignore calls by those disgruntled elements in the Niger Delta, calling for a change in the leadership of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).
Ibena made the call on Wednesday, November 29, while speaking with journalists on his way to Yenagoa at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
He said as Interim Administrator, General Barry Ndiomu, was the best thing that has happened to the Amnesty Office since it’s inception more than fourteen years ago.
The ex-agitators' leader noted that though past Administrators of the Amnesty office tried their best to deliver on their mandate, Ndiomu has, however, repositioned the Programme to impact directly on the ex-agitators.
Ibena stressed that this is a shift from the past where the ex-agitators who are the main beneficiaries of the programme were neglected at the expense of some so-called leaders from the region who are championing the campaign of calumny against the Interim Administrator.
"These so-called elites see the Amnesty Office (Programme) as their fish pounds or Cassava farms. We have always maintained and will continue to say that what General Ndiomu has achieved in just a year has impacted so much in the lives of beneficiaries and people of the region in a more sustainable manner."
According to him, the new initiatives by the Interim Administrator such as the PAP cooperative scheme are sustainable projects which any serious minded ex-agitator could leverage on to change his live, families and the region for good.
"It is, therefore, worrisome to some of us who have improved on our lives to become industrious, independent and self reliant to hear some ex-agitators lament over delay in payment of the N65,000 monthly stipend 14 years after the amnesty office was created", he said.
Ibena expressed concern that adults who are apparently able-bodied men embarking on protests or threatening to go back to the creeks over delay in payment of monthly stipends is a reflection of the mindset of some persons who have continued to live in the inglorious past.
He said "We also hear some ex-agitators threatening to protest naked on the streets of Abuja for several days because they are too gullible to appreciate the sustainable initiatives introduced by General Ndiomu.
"It, therefore, beats any sensible imagination why anyone would want to attach any seriousness to such persons who have portrayed the Niger Delta as a theatre of negativity in the media" he added.
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