From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
An Oil and Gas Transparency group, Transparency in Petroleum Exploration and Development Initiative, (TIPEDI) has described as misplaced, what it called “sponsored attacks” on the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Program PAP, Major General Tariye Barry Ndiomu (retd).
According to the group, relentless attacks on Ndiomu over planned scrapping of the PAP were unwarranted and should be directed at the Federal Government.
The Executive Director, International Monitoring, TIPEDI, Mr Igho Derek in a statement urged Ndiomu to remain focused and not be distracted by the attacks driven by selfish motives.
“We say this because it is our belief that all the frivolous and baseless accusations being made against Gen. Barry Ndiomu so soon after his assumption of office, are designed to distract his attention from the work on hand, knowing full well that he has a very short window within which to deliver on the mandate,” he stated.
Derek, who is a past President of the South-South Peoples Assembly (SSPA), UK & Northern Ireland, disclosed that sponsors of the media attacks have been found to have antagonised every coordinator of the amnesty programme not for collective good but selfish gains.
TIPEDI therefore called on the political and community leaders in the Niger Delta area, as well as the heads of the various groups of ex-Agitators, who feel otherwise about the winding down of the Amnesty Program, to apply pressure on the Federal Government to continue with the program, instead of allowing few elements to vent their frustrations on Gen. Ndiomu.
The statement read in part, “We believe that a man of General Barry Ndiomu’s character and standing both in the military where he served meritoriously and rose to the peak of his career or in his civilian life since retiring from the Army, should be celebrated and encouraged to participate in public service in order to deploy his vast experiences to the benefit of the Niger Delta people and the nation that he loves dearly, instead of being antagonized and vilified unjustly.
“We therefore urged the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Program PAP, Gen. Barry Ndiomu (retd) to remain focused on the national assignment he has been given in order to justify the confidence reposed in him by Mr President who appointed him to the Office”.