Since Ndiomu’s appointment in September 2022, the group said the program and the Niger Delta region have retrogressed.
The group also pointed out that the interim administrator’s tenure has long elapsed, since the 29th of May 2023, and therefore should not be allowed to continue to illegally remain in that office to allegedly loot billions of naira on a monthly basis.
“As a nation, we can’t afford to continue to borrow billions of dollars and turn around to give it to these politicians to loot everything. This is becoming a national and an international embarrassment and disgrace.
“It is sad and retrogressive for the present administration to appoint substantive heads of other institutions, boards and organizations without considering the rot, fraud, chaos, and maladministration ongoing at the Presidential Amnesty Programme under Ndiomu to deserve immediate attention and change, despite the numerous documented allegations of fraud and calls from all quarters across the region for change,” the group said in a statement issued in Port Harcourt signed by its National Coordinator, Chief Ayibatekena Olodin.
The group further said this of Ndiomu:
In his quest to allegedly defraud the Amnesty Programme and believing that the incoming President Tinubu’s administration will immediately remove him from office on or after 29th May 2023, he cunningly setup the Presidential Amnesty Cooperative Society Limited on Wednesday 24th May 2023 seeming to empower Niger Delta youths with an initial setup fund of ₦1.5billion and arrangements were made for a monthly deposit into the cooperative’s account of ₦500m and within four months totaling ₦4billion with Providus Bank. Till date, only 500 Amnesty beneficiaries have been empowered with the sum of ₦1m each totaling ₦500m, with ₦3.5bn allegedly missing.”
It would be recalled that the PAP’s Interim Administrator while launching the scheme had described it as a novel scheme called the Presidential Amnesty Programme Cooperative Society Limited, (PAPCOSOL) in favour of the ex-agitators to the tune of N1.5 billion.
He added that the cooperative already has over N1.5 billion deposited in Providus Bank noting that the programme looked forward to injecting N500 million monthly to sustain the PAPCOSOL. He said the agricultural and manufacturing sectors were its target in providing grants for the ex-agitators
However, the MSDND, in it’s statement called on security and anti-graft agencies to invite the PAP Anchors of the Cooperative Mr. Zigha Ayibakuro and Major Akpos Marshall for questioning on the whereabouts of the ₦3.5billion allegedly missing from the Cooperative’s account.
“The security agencies should place Ndiomu on its travel watchlist to ensure justice is achieved,” it added.
The group stated that despite months of complaints, petitions and revelations of alleged diversion of billions of Amnesty funds, non-payment of beneficiaries stipends and institutional fraud under the present management led by Gen. Barry Ndiomu, “It is saddening that it is only the PAP that has remained untouched and unattended to by the present administration despite complaints and serious documented allegations of fraud.”
The statement further read, “Maj-Gen. Ndiomu (retd), has completely bastardized the Presidential Amnesty Programme and has neglected the real beneficiaries of the programme. The original beneficiaries of the programme that were officially captured are abandoned for others that are not part of the programme.”