NewsReports

Ex-militants Fight Over N3.8bn Amnesty Contract

Comrade Tonye Bobo, the National leader of third phase of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, has warned the Boma Inewariku group to stop dragging the names of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd.) to the mud over speculated frivolous allegations of fraud..

In the same vein, he warned against smearing the new Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, Maj. Gen. Barry Tariye Ndiomu (retd).

Speaking with newsmen on Friday, Comrade Bobo said the $2million kick-back allegation made against the new Interim Administrator from the said N3.8 billion contract was laughable, adding that Gen. Ndiomu has no hand in the matter which he said was before a court of law.

He described “the call for the suspension of an innocent man that just assumed office as unimaginable.”

According to report by Vanguard, Bobo alleged that “the same blackmailers who are calling on the NSA to suspend the new Interim Administrator are equally linking the national security Adviser to the alleged purported intent to defraud the federal government through the payment of the said contracts.”

Bobo further claimed that “the said purported contracts being linked to the two highly respected retired military generals were reportedly awarded during the period of late Prof. Charles Quaker Dokubo.”

He wondered why the matters which he said were under litigation were being linked to the new Interim Administrator who has barely spent six weeks in office.

Bobo described what he called as “disparaging and insulting comments about the two military generals in both conventional and social media as so disheartening.”

According to him, such a behaviour was unbecoming of desperate youths in the Niger Delta which have repercussions on the authors themselves and their future.

Bobo, who is a member of the Presidential Amnesty Strategic Communication Committee, said honuor provides the “moral compass” for character and personal conduct in life, reiterating that “the two retired top military generals in the Nigerian Army are persons of very high integrity who possess high moral standards and honest in word and deed, being truthful and upright at times despite pressures to do otherwise.”

He said the self-styled ex-militant leaders from the nine states of the Niger Delta region claiming to have petitioned the National Security Adviser over an alleged attempt by the Interim Administrator of (PAP), Gen. Ndiomu to scuttle an ongoing suit against 15 companies in an attempt to ‘allegedly arm-twist the Amnesty office to pay the contractor’ makes no sense to any rational thinking individual.

He said, “the present ex-agitators in the Niger Delta have moved beyond this level mediocrity, having had the privilege of being trained in reputable institutions within and outside the country through the PAP’s scholarship scheme.”

The third phase national leader called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the authors of the alleged unfounded petition against Gen. Ndiomu, an illustrious Ijaw son who has distinguished himself in the service of the nation meritoriously and retired honourably without blemish.

“We are not unaware of the main source behind the Boma Inewariku led blackmailers’ group.They are just trying to unnecessarily instigate fresh crisis in the Niger Delta for their selfish interests to the detriment of the larger population of Niger Deltans.

“The call on the National Security Adviser to suspend and investigate the new Interim Administrator and subsequent call for appointment of a four-man committee as acting coordinator, acting director of procurement, acting director of finance and acting legal advisers portrait their hidden agenda and interests.

“As educated ex-agitators, we will not allow ‘crises entrepreneurs’ in the Niger Delta to come and instigate us to go on federal roads to cause problems.

“These baseless allegations will not cause any uproar or breakdown of law and order in the Niger Delta region. I call on the law enforcement agencies to put these blackmailers in check”, Comrade Tonye Bobo said.