Stop Playing The Ethnic Card With PAP, Group Warns Akpodoro

**Urges Tinubu not to tinker with current peace in Niger Delta

The Niger Delta Integrity Group (NDIG) has cautioned Eshanekpe Israel, a.k.a Akpodoro, to immediately refrain from fanning the embers of ethnic bigotry in his “failed” quest to malign the Office of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), under the leadership of Major General Barry Ndiomu (rtd).

In a statement issued on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Convener of the NDIG, Dr. Boma Horsfall noted that claims of the self-styled Mayor of Urhoboland and self-acclaimed leader of ex-agitators in the Niger Delta Region, are tied to a selfish agenda. He faulted online blogs “who do not understand the rudiments of facts-based journalism for allowing their platforms to be used to sponsor misguided articles against the PAP”.

The NDIG recalled that the First Phase ex-agitators were the ones who originally embraced the Presidential Amnesty Programme, and laid down their arms in Obubra, Cross Rivers State in 2009. “He (Agbonkpolor) does not belong to the First Phase. The public should take note that he is a Second Phase member. The Second and Third phases are the ones giving the PAP issues. They are not the ones that this programme was originally set up for in the first place,” Horsfall added. “These were a set of cultists and miscreants wrongly enlisted under the programme by Kingsley Kuku”.

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While stating that the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government is out for serious business, and will not be “cajoled into listening to jokers like Agbonkpolor and their primitive ways of reasoning”, Horsfall said the “Presidency has to be reminded that currently, the most peaceful region of Nigeria is the Niger Delta for obvious reasons, thus, appointing a non-Ijaw Administrator to head the PAP will trigger devastating consequences, which wil be detrimental to the country at large”.

“When the Ijaws submitted their arms at the inception of the Amnesty Programme, other tribes labelled them criminals. As I speak, the First Phase delegates are even ashamed of being referred to as ‘generals’ or ‘ex-warlords’ in public places. If the National Security Adviser cannot see through and understand the issues, then his competence is questionable.

“We urge Ndiomu to not be dismayed by unguarded statements from uneducated miscreants, and focus on his noble stewardship of the PAP”.