Some major stakeholders from the Niger Delta have called on groups and individuals who have been engaged in serial petition writing and promoting negativity on the media and other public platforms to tender unreserved apology to Major General Barry Ndiomu, Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme for their months of needless attacks.

The call is coming against the backdrop of the successful take off of the PAP cooperative scheme and the resuscitation of the aviation programme which has been moribund for eight years as well as other initiatives and policy direction.

In a statement issued in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital the Niger Delta Peace Advocates (NDPA) and Grassroots People Agenda (GPA) said General Ndiomu has been vindicated from all the accusations and name calling by those un-informed people whose stock in trade is to pull down any influential person from the region they cannot manipulate.

The statement signed by Ebitimi Kurowei, chairman and Amangiye Thomas, Secretary, NDPA and Mimi Ochuko and Tare Ifiemi chairman and publicity secretary of GPA explained that General Ndiomu has shown capacity in his one year in office as exhibited in the various initiative drives and deliberate policy direction which are adding value to the lives of ex-agitators and people of the Niger Delta in general.

The stakeholders noted that “What the Niger Delta requires more than ever before is to harness the large idle youthful population into a proficient entrepreneurial and productive force with different skill-sets to drive economic change in the region and beyond. The large population of employed youths in the region, particularly those able-bodied male from whose lands the wealth of the country comes from, could be a ticking time-bomb that should be avoided”.

They stated that the Presidential Amnesty Programme under the leadership of General Ndiomu is doing things right having engaged with all relevant stakeholders on the way forward, what the Interim Administrator has succeeded in doing is a product of those consultations to change the lives of willing ex- agitators for good.

The groups said “It is however unfortunate that in the Niger Delta there are groups of people who intentionally antagonize public and appointed officers from the region by consistently posting false and offensive contents about them if things are not done their way. We know General Ndiomu is a disciplined
officer with a high pedigree who has refused to compromise against all the name calling, petitions and the media attacks.”

The groups said they would work closely with all like-minded stakeholders from the region to rally round General Ndiomu to see to the success of the legacy projects, particularly the cooperate scheme which ex-agitators have confirmed has taken off with most of those who have gone through the process have started receiving their loans.

“The Interim Administrator needs the collective support of ex-agitators and stakeholders from the region and having seen his drive and vision and being witnesses to his sincerity of purpose and that he meant well for the region, it would only be proper for those who have maligned him unjustly, should render unreserved apologies to him” the statement added.