Ndiomu, Tompolo meet, discuss PAP’s future

The Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Maj-Gen. Barry Ndiomu has held a closed-door meeting with a former commander of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), High Chief Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo over the future of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

Ndiomu was said to have met Tompolo briefly on Wednesday night at his country home in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Delta State.

The meeting, which lasted for about an hour, was said to be a continuation of an ongoing consultation by Ndiomu with critical stakeholders on his new mandate for PAP.

Ndiomu reportedly sought the cooperation of Tompolo on his mandate to systematically bring PAP to its termination stage.

The amnesty boss also commended Tompolo for his recent feat in the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to his company by the federal government.

Earlier, the PAP helmsman paid a homage to the the Pere of Gbaramatu, H.R.M King Williams Ogoba Oboro Gbaraun II, at his palace.

Explaining his mission to the monarch, Ndiomu said he was on a familarisation tour to the kingdom to intimate stakeholders on the new directive of the government about the amnesty programme.

Ndiomu said: “I do not want to go into too many details for want of time. But I want ro 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’ll present to 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 government is that we have to refocus and redirect the programme in such a way that we’ll 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 government is saying no, this programme has lost it’s 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”.

Responding, 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.

The king said: “We all know the amnesty programme has a history, let’s start from somewhere, and it’s moving, it’s deviating from the right part. We all know the amnesty programme is deviating from the right part. We want you to be firm, stand firm.

“This your visit is a familiarisation one. We have a lot to say, but the time is little, so we also ask for your second visit, so that we’ll discuss at length, because there are many things that we have to discuss for the benefit and the peace of Niger Delta, so to shorten the interaction, there is no time, time is not on our side, we’ll let you to go and we’re also asking for another visit. It’s a kind of emergency one today”.

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