The new interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Maj-Gen. Barry Ndiomu (retd), has held a meeting with Chief Government Ekpemupolo popularly known as Tompolo and other critical stakeholders in the Niger-Delta region.
Ndiomu who visited the ex-agitator at his country home in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South West LGA, Delta State, sued for cooperation.
It was learnt the meeting was in continuation of an ongoing consultation by Ndiomu with critical stakeholders on his new mandate for PAP.
Ndiomu sought the cooperation of Tompolo on his mandate to systematically bring PAP to its termination stage, commending him for his recent feat in the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to his company by the federal government.
Earlier, the PAP bods paid homage to the Pere of Gbaramatu, H.R.M King Williams Ogoba Oboro Gbaraun II, at his palace.
Ndiomu said he was on a familiarisation tour to the kingdom to intimate stakeholders on the new directives of the government about the amnesty programme.
He said: “I want to assure His Royal Majesty that I will come back within a few weeks because we are returning again for proper, much more comprehensive stakeholders consultations.
“I’m pleading that we will be inviting His Royal Majesty to also participate, so that there will be contributions from the palace, and we can together articulate a position which we will present to the government to further improve what we want in terms of our demands, for our people.
“If you recall, when the programme itself was put in place the objective was for it to have terminated in 2015 but it has gone beyond 2015. And so the thinking of the government is that we have to refocus and redirect the programme in such a way that we will move towards the final termination, in a very systematic manner.
“Since I assumed office in the last one month and a couple of weeks or so, I have found out myself that a lot of things are wrong with the programme. Without any doubt, the programme has completely derailed from the purpose for which it was established and as I speak to you, there are many people who are not even Niger Deltans that have been awarded scholarships.
“We cannot allow this to continue and it is for these reasons and more that I believe the government is saying no, this programme has lost its focus, let us all sit together.
“So that is why they’ve asked me to have consultations with the people of the Niger Delta, we sit together and tell ourselves the truth, has it really served the interest of our people, what do we propose collectively as an alternative, as something better, which we have to take back to the government and say, this is how we want this programme to go that will be beneficial to the interest of our people.”
The monarch who congratulated Ndiomu on his appointment, also acknowledged that the amnesty programme had derailed from its original idea and urged him to do what was right for the interest of the people and the region.
