Leave Amnesty Administrator Alone, Ex-agitators Tell NASS

Former agitators in the Niger Delta region, have warned the National Assembly, especially the Senate, to withdraw its threat of arrest warrant on the interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Colonel Milland Dikkio (rtd).

This is even as they reminded the National Assembly that the PAP was not an automated teller machine (ATM) for politicians from the Niger Delta region and Nigeria at large.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Account, Senator Matthew Urhogbide, had last Sunday, threatened that Dikkio risked being arrested following his alleged failure to appear before the Senate.

But, the ex-agitators, under the auspices of the western flank of the now defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP, warned politicians to stay away from the PAP Office, unless their involvements are in tandem with the mandate of the peace of the Niger Delta.

The statement, which was signed by the western zonal spokesman, Captain Loveday Angokuro, alleged that Urhogbide and some of his colleagues was on personal mission of vendetta following their failure to extract favours from the Amnesty Office.

The statement reads in part: “The so-called threat by the Senator, to the best of our knowledge, is a personal and ego mission. He and his co travelers are on a personal vendetta which is the result of a failed attempt to extract highly unreasonable favours from the Amnesty Office.

“To the best of our knowledge, the current Interim Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Col. Milland Dikkio has successfully piloted the affairs of the office since he assumed leadership of the PAP.

“Colonel Dikkio has changed the narrative to the best of his ability while not compromising standards. Therefore, the allegation by the Senator that the Interim Administrator shunned the Senate Committee on Public Accounts is not correct.”