February 10, (THEWILL) – Angry beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme from the Nine states of the Niger Delta region has said the suspension of two account office staff of the Amnesty office, Mr Cletus Robson and Mr Olusegun, over the facts listed in the petitions filed against Interim Administrator, Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd) and some senior staff for alleged fraud and forgery, is a clear vindication against gross misconduct and financial misappropriation. These two individuals are being sacrificed as scapegoats, despite not having anything to do with the petitions against Ndiomu.
According to the aggrieved Amnesty Beneficiaries, the key stakeholders in the region are waiting patiently for the response of President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Security Adviser, Maj-Gen Babagana Mohammed Monguno, on the series of petitions filed against Interim Administrator, Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd) and his cohorts at the Amnesty office, the suspension of the Account Staff and other desperate measures to clamp down and lobby the media are being observed and noted.
The aggrieved beneficiaries, led by one Comrade Layeifa Dumbo, restated the call for the suspension of the Interim Administrator and other top staff indicted over the rising cases of alleged fraud and diversion of funds under the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP.
Comrade Layeifa Dumbo, who claimed to be a member of the 3rd phase of the Amnesty Programme and one of the beneficiaries, whose scholarship programme was suspended, said the hundreds of the aggrieved ex-militants, stakeholders and angry beneficiaries are preparing to stage a protest against the Interim Administrator planned visit to Yenagoa, Bayelsa state.
According to Dumbo, the protests by the aggrieved youths is to truncate the visit meant to felicitate with the Bayelsa Governor, Senator Douye Diri, as he marks his third anniversary in office and lobby journalists against further exposure of his alleged involvement in fraudulent activities and failures of the Amnesty office under his leadership.
According to the ex-militants and aggrieved beneficiaries, Maj-Gen Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd.) should be warned against visiting any Niger Delta states, stating that “his intentions for our people are wicked. He is the first Amnesty Boss in the history of the PAP not to deploy a single individual for vocational training, initiate any type of trade empowerment programmes, or deploy a single student for higher education to a university, despite the billions of naira at his disposal.
“Rather, he continually brags and boasts of delisting the names of our suffering people from the Amnesty Programme, when such moves will never be condoned at the Northeast Development Commission and other federal intervention agencies with spending hundreds of billions of dollars naira across the north.
“He stopped our payments that our families rely on to survive in these difficult times, delisted our names from the Amnesty Programme, and we hope our monies will not be diverted for personal pockets?” The ex-militants and aggrieved beneficiaries frowned at the numerous fraud and corruption allegations levelled against the Interim Administrator week after week, and they unanimously called on the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Mohammed Monguno (rtd.) to suspend him, and initiate proper investigations into the alleged forging of the signature of Late Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo, to illegally back-date and award contracts worth billions of naira in order to raise payments for some persons within the Presidency. They said, “There is no smoke without fire.”
They warned the allegedly paid handlers of Ndiomu’s social and news media to desist from using propaganda to spread misinformation to cover up the failures of their boss. “We challenge any one of these paid propagandists to show us one positive project his administration has done since his appointment in September 2022, and we are looking forward to his tenure expiration on March 1, 2023, which is about 19 days from now, for him to leave our Amnesty office for good, and to allow for a more credible individual to take charge.
“We are aware that a young man that is involved with Nigeria Young Professionals is the individual behind spreading misinformation in support of his uncle Ndiomu, and we are warning him to desist from such falsehood. This individual uses a fictitious group known as Niger Delta Integrity Group (NDIG), with Dr Boma Horsfall, as its Convener, but sadly, it’s all fictitious.
“We are the true owners of the Amnesty Programme, and we will not keep silent as our funds are being siphoned by a corrupt individual, and for the memories of our loved ones who sacrificed, fought and thousands of them died prior to the proclamation of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in 2009 be destroyed by an incompetent and corrupt individual.
“Since the appointment of the present administration into the Presidential Amnesty office, and with billions of naira at his disposal, not a single PAP beneficiary or anyone from the Niger Delta region has been deployed for training or empowered. What a shame!”
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