Niger Delta ex-agitators have told aggrieved stakeholders in Bayelsa State to stop blackmailing the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Maj.-Gen. Barry Ndiomu (retd) with the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
The Coalition of Ex-agitators in Niger Delta (CEND) in a statement on Thursday condemned viral reports from some interest groups in the Bayelsa All Progressives Congress (APC) linking Ndiomu to partisanship in the state and directly accusing the amnesty boss of supporting the reelection bid of the state Governor, Douye Diri.
CEND in the statement signed by its Coordinator, Gershom Mpaka Gbobo, said Ndiomu understood perfectly the functions of his office and was too busy to dabble into politics in his home state.
Contrary to the reports, Gbobo said Ndiomu had no political relationship with Governor Diri, his predecessor, Senator Seriake Dickson and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Gbobo averred that it was preposterous for anybody to accuse Ndiomu of leaking confidential documents to members of the public adding that if such act truly happened within the amnesty office, the civil servants should be held responsible.
He said: “We want to state categorically that the presidential amnesty office is not a political office. It is a security office. In fact, the Ndiomu we know perfectly understands the functions of his office and gas been discharging them diligently. The amnesty boss is too busy to engage in politics.
“We are also worried like others that confidential documents and correspondences between the amnesty office and the office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) in respect of the amnesty status of one of our leaders, Joshua Macaiver, were leaked to members of the public.
“But we state without any fear of contradiction that Gen. Ndiomu (retd) cannot be blamed for such development. Nobody has established the source of the leakage whether it is from the amnesty office or the office of the SGF. Even if it is from the amnesty office, only civil servants, who handle such correspondences should be held responsible for it.
“We have consistently warned against flooding the amnesty office, which is designed as a security programme, with civil servants because most of them are corrupt and could do anything with money”.
Gbobo, however, called on Ndiomu to set up a panel to investigate the source of the leakage and persons behind it with the aim of punishing defaulters.
“We want to call on members of the public especially stakeholders of PAP to discountenance the allegation of Ndiomu’s partisanship because there is no iota of truth in it”.
END.
