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By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
The Niger Delta Integrity Group (NDIG) has ascribed the “latest attacks on and blackmail” of Major General Barry Ndiomu (rtd), the interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), to supporters of Labour Party’s Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The group in a statement on Friday issued by its convener, Dr. Boma Horsfall, accused those who worked against President Bola Tinubu at the February 25 presidential polls of being behind the recent blackmail of Ndiomu, insisting that their actions were not altruistic but “grossly a show of their anger at the emergence of Tinubu as the President of Nigeria.”
NDIG said that the reasons adduced by the “faceless group of blackmailers against the person of Ndiomu and his leadership were baseless, frivolous and a concoction of fairy tales and primitive lies intended to advance their selfish interests.”
The statement said in part: “The NDIG after conducting due diligence and investigation, discovered that these resentful elements who issued a misleading statement bogusly titled: ‘Amnesty Fraud: Stakeholders write Tinubu, halt N5.6b fraudulent payment hanging on GIFMIS platform, seek immediate hand-over to the most senior director’, are not ex-agitators and are fictitious designations that are not captured in the PAP database.
“For the records, their claims are false and non-existent. It is disappointing that they have now descended to the gutter of lunacy. Who are the purported elders and traditional rulers that endorsed the statement? It is public knowledge that all critical stakeholders of the Niger Delta region, including elders and traditional rulers, are in full support of Ndiomu’s undertakings at the PAP. These are people that he has been constantly engaging with.”
The statement said that Ndiomu who is fondly regarded as the ‘People’s General’ is “widely loved and accepted across the region.”
It urged Ndiomu not to be deterred by the “fraudulent schemes of a few dishonest elements who are driven by the dictates of their bellies.”
The group appealed to the general public to “disregard such sponsored statements from these unprincipled individuals who have in the past come forth with bogus contract claims that PAP has refused to attend to. They were exposed through an audit as those having multiple accounts linked to one BVN with which they fraudulently collected monthly stipends for many years before the arrival of Ndiomu.”
NDIG said that if the jobs that they claimed they have done, for which huge sums were paid for by past PAP administrations were in existence, the region would have developed beyond its status today.
“They should therefore shut their mouths and bury their heads in shame, as it is now crystal clear that the reason why they want Ndiomu out is because he has refused to do their criminal bidding.
“It is sad that the region has become a warehouse of falsehood and self-denial. Those affected by BVN issues are encouraged to look for lawful means to clear their names, as the NDIG will not hesitate to publish the names of these contractors and sponsors soon if they don’t desist from spreading falsehood.
“The NDIG commends General Ndiomu on the recently launched Cooperative Scheme, and considers it one of the best ways to create windows of opportunities for youths in the region,” he said.
