MOSIEND Protests Alleged Assault On Ex-Agitator By Soldiers

Movement for the Survival of Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND) has kicked against alleged assault on a former Niger Delta agitator, Pere Ebidowei, by personnel of the Nigerian Army at the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) office in Abuja.

While frowning at the ill-treatment meted out to Ebidowei, who hails from Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa State, the group advised ex-militants and other stakeholders to be diplomatic and always follow due process.

MOSIEND president-general, Kennedy West, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday, called on the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, to reconcile the errors in the PAP records which has resulted in the delisting of some ex-agitators.

West stated that the delisting has turned the ex-agitators against the PAP interim administrator, Major General Barry Ndiomu (rtd).

He said it would be better for the Presidential Amnesty register to be sanitised so that those receiving multiple salaries would now be receiving only one salary; maintaining that this will stop the incessant demonstrations against the interim administrator.

The MOSIEND leader stated that being a Niger Deltan was not a yardstick for one to disobey constituted authority or go about challenging military men discharging their duties.

He condemned the manner the news was reported in some quarters wherein the PAP interim administrator, Ndiomu, was blamed for what transpired in his absence.

West attributed these horrible events at the Presidential Amnesty office to poor funding of the programme, saying that, right from the time of Kingsley Kuku, the budget of the PAP has not been reviewed upward, despite inflation in the prices of goods and services.

He advised the national security adviser (NSA), Mr Nuhu Ribadu, to look critically at the issues, saying that it is about time the budget of the amnesty programme was reviewed to meet present realities of Nigeria and the world.