BY AMOS OKIOMA, YENAGOA.
Scores of ex-militant generals in the Niger Delta region have passed a vote of confidence in the Interim Administrator (IA) of the Presidential Amnesty Program, PAP, Major General B. T. Ndiomu (Retd) for his decision to provide palliatives for the victims of floods in the region.
The decision of the new Acting Administrator, which has generated criticisms from some quarters, was hinged on the fact that the rising wave of flood water has sparked an astronomical rise in the prices of foodstuffs because dealers have struggled to access the flooded region in the past month.
Speaking to Journalists this weekend in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on this development, the Chairman, Strategic Communications committee, Presidential Amnesty Program, Stratcom, Comrade Nature Dumale Kieghe said the ex-militant Generals chose to support the new PAP Administrator because he was on the right path of ameliorating the plight of the vulnerable Niger Delta people.
“While we wait for the new Interim Administrator to fulfil his mandate in the best possible way, we the ex-militant Generals and some key stakeholders in the Niger Delta have come out to pass a vote of confidence in him for planning palliative measures for suffering flood victims in the Niger Delta region.
“ we have communicated with Ndiomu and firmly believe that he has the interests of his people heart. The fact that he had a crucial meeting with critical stakeholders of PAP and the leadership of the first, second and third phases of ex-agitators leadership, shows that the General knows what he wants to achieve for the betterment of this region.
“Finally, we want to warn anybody who thinks he can fight the PAP Administrator while he is diligently attending to his duties that we will fight back on Ndiomu’s behalf.
The flood victims are not people from Ghana, they are not from China or from any other countries of the world.
They are Niger Delta people from Nigeria.
And we wonder why critics think it is wrong for an agency that was created for Niger Deltans to reach out to vulnerable Niger Deltans who are facing a humanitarian disaster!
The Stratcom Chairman debunked the vicious rumor that the IA is using palliatives as a conduit for fraud, adding that unnecessary infighting among the people of the region is the reason the Niger Delta has failed to develop.
“We must stop unconstructive criticisms and infantile petitions against our own”, he concluded.
