Ex-agitators Disagree Over Amnesty Office’s Operations

Former chairman, Bayelsa State chapter of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Phase 2, Ibena Rufus Salvation, has cautioned some chairmen of the Phase 2 Ex-Agitators Forum of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), purportedly from Delta, Edo and Bayelsa States, to desist from making malicious publications against the interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Maj. Gen. Barry Ndiomu (retd).

Ibena gave the warning yesterday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State when he reacted to online publications by ex-agitators’ leader, Israel Akpodoro, and others from Isoko, Urhorbo and Itsekiri in Delta State, accusing Ndiomu of hijacking N320 million and also threatening to shut down Utorogu Gas Plant.

He said the allegations made against the PAP interim administrator were not true and that no ex-agitator under whatever guise, nomenclature or auspices hijacked the sum of N320 million in Bayelsa or any other state of the Niger Delta connected to the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

Ibena further stated that Ijaw people, particularly in Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta states, participated and suffered more during the Niger Delta arms struggle, adding that Akpodoro and his cohorts from Delta State were privileged beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme who never participated in the Niger Delta struggle.

He said, “My attention was drawn to a publication by one Israel Akpodoro from Urhorbo in Delta State. It is unfortunate that some of these leaders have forgotten where they came from, people who do not know the history of the Niger Delta struggle.

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“We are not denying the fact that Isoko, Urhorbo and Itsekiri are not Niger Delta. They are; they are our brothers. But when it comes to the Niger Delta struggle, everybody in Nigeria, even the world at large, knows that we the Ijaw people particularly in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states suffered more in the struggle.

“Coming to say that the Amnesty Office today is doing ethnic segregation or they are biased in dealing with the office activities is not true. As we all know, the interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Maj. Gen. Tariye Barry Ndiomu, is a senior military retiree and now a lawyer that knows the law. He would not want to tamper with any illegal dealings in the office.”