Niger Delta: No amount of threat will stop our protest

Some ex-agitators under the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, have said they will not be intimidated by threats of arrest from the office over their protest against the immediate removal of the interim administrator, Maj-Gen. Barry Ndiomu (retd), over non-payment of their six months allowances.

The aggrieved former agitators said they would protest in the nation’s capital from Monday until all their demands are met.

Recall that a coalition of former agitators under the PAP, Phases 1, 2 and 3, threatened to shut down the Amnesty office in protest for the immediate sack of the Ndiomu over issues relating to delisting of names and non-payment of six months allowances.

The group made their position known in a statement issued on Monday and signed by Gen. Paul Johnson and Solomon Adu, Chairmen, Phase 2, Bayelsa and Delta State.

They said part of their demands was to see an ex-agitator take the centre stage in the decision-making process in the Amnesty Office, not strangers who do not know the in and out of the struggle in the Niger Delta.

It was also gathered that the ex-agitators massively entered the FCT on Sunday night for the scheduled protest.

The statement reads, “We are going to remain here until our demands are met. Going to more than six months, the monthly N65,000.00 stipends, meant for over 7,000 ex-agitators, have stopped; the payment stopped after the appointment of Maj-Gen Barry Tariye Ndiomu as the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. So where are the monies entering?

“If Ndiomu is not sacked and replaced with a Niger-Deltan who understands the plight of the people of the region, especially the ex-agitators, we will keep protesting.

“We also want the immediate suspension of the planned cooperative by Ndiomu, because the so-called cooperative is a conduit pipe he wants to use to suck financial resources in the Amnesty Programme for his selfish interest to the detriment of the ex-agitators.

“We also want the immediate restoration of the training programmes, both academic and non-academic programmes.”