The Mayor of Urhoboland and a leader of ex-agitators in the Niger Delta region, Eshanekpe Israel, a.k.a Akpodoro has once again called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately sack the Interim Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, General Barry Ndiomu (rtd.)

Speaking at a meeting of stakeholders in Abuja on Tuesday, Mayor Akpodoro said, Ndiomu is former President Muhammadu Buhari’s ‘work tool’ that shouldn’t be used by the current administration calling for the appointment of a new Coordinator who he argued will lead the Amnesty Programme into the Renewed Hope Agenda of his administration.

He wondered why President Tinubu chose to retain the Coordinator who he described as an ethnic bigot in such a sensitive position that he noted is the umbrella of the development and growth of a region he described as multi-ethnic nationalities with different cultural leaning.

Describing him as as running his people agenda, Akpodoro said, the former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele’s experience and rot he bequeathed on the apex should be enough warning that, Buhari’s appointees should all be swept off any reasonable administration that is willing to make progress as he reminded the President that Ndiomu is a product of that government “that funded corruption and made it flourished unfettered.”

He further maintained that perhaps the Coordinator has put in his best into thr management of the programme but was quick to say his best is not good enough for the Amnesty office adding that the Coordinator has gotten to his wit’s end and should booted out of the office while a fresh appointment is made from another tribe in the region stating that the programme is not a birthright of any ethnic nation.

If the President could sack service Chiefs, sack CBN governor what is he waiting for to fire a man whose allegiance is to those who mismanaged Nigeria? Can’t President Tinubu rewrite our trajectory as a people? This is not the Tinubu we know. He should do needful by showing Ndiomu the exit door.

The Gbaregolor Ughelli South Local Government Area-born Mayor noted that the Amnesty has turned that office to a goldmine for those who appointed him while he’s a huge disappointment to the beneficiaries of the programme particularly those from other ethnic leaning and the people of the region whose productive population ought to have been more developed than they are at the moment.

He noted that the current leadership of the programme has impoverished the supposed ex-militants, youths and persons leaving them worse than he met them lamenting as he lamented the lopsided payment of stipends, scholarship to beneficiaries, non training of youths and persons who are supposed to be trained in accordance to the dictate of the act establishing the programme.

Akpodoro argued that such a man shouldn’t be allowed to stay a day longer in that office but should be shown the exit door as soon as the President took over the reins of power to pave the way for a new dawn in the programme. A particular tribe he maintained, has been unwittingly made to develop what he described as erroneous sense of entitlement to the leadership of the programme to which he called on the FG to ensure that the next appointment must come from Urhoboland, which said the largest humongous entity in the oil-rich Delta region.

Appointing on particular tribe has injured the spirit and soul of the Amnesty Programme and now is when to right the wrong. The President must act now.

Equity and fairplay the Mayor said must be the rule in the administration and management of the programme on the premise of which he said every ethnic nationality in the region is entitled to the leadership of PAP as he called on the NSA to make haste in the appointment of a new helmsman for the programme and do away with that person whose solidarity and loyalty is for tribe and not Nigeria.

“The Amnesty Programme is no longer what it used to be. We have lamented, cried, and moaned enough over the deliberate mishandling of beneficiaries of the programme from other nationalities outside the Ijaw nation. Mind you, Ndiomu is not the first Ijaw man to be so appointed into that office. Kingsley Kuku, who was the pioneer coordinator of the programme, was a Nigerian in every facet of his leadership. He was a regional leader and very loyal to every group from the Niger Delta region.

“He did his best and ex-militants till date still miss him in that office while others came into the office with the mindset of ethnic supremacy to mismanage the goodwill bequeathed on the programme by the founders of that regional development agency. The NSA must act now. Not only sacked, Ndiomu’s tenure must be thoroughly probed to ascertain the level of rot in that agency. We are privy to so many scandals including but not limited to being the sole contractor to the Amnesty office, but until the FG takes the bull by its horn, we won’t stop lamenting the ills in that office,” the Mayor concluded.