In a statement released by the group’s convener Boma Horsfall and obtained by SaharaReporters, the ex-militants condemned the allegation, describing it as slander targeted at tarnishing the reputation of Ndiomu.
The Niger Delta Integrity Group (NDIG) has distanced itself from the petition written to the National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Babagana Monguno (rtd.), alleging that the Interim Administrator, Maj. Gen. Barry Tariye Ndiomu, his aides and some officials of the Amnesty office had been involved in graft as regards the Presidential Amnesty Programme since September 2022.
In a statement released by the group’s convener Boma Horsfall and obtained by SaharaReporters, the ex-militants condemned the allegation, describing it as slander targeted at tarnishing the reputation of Ndiomu.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that some ex-militant leaders from the nine states of the Niger Delta region had raised the alarm over an alleged systematic and criminal diversion of funds allocated to the Presidential Amnesty Programme by officials of the Amnesty office.
“The claims of alleged diversion of PAP funds by Ndiomu as recently published in some news platforms is untrue, baseless, unfounded, and is a clear case of a sponsored attempt to evoke distraction away from the good works of the new PAP administration,” the statement by the group read.
The statement continued: “The NDIG notes with utmost dismay, how some Ijaws have chosen to remain non-futuristic, disunited and are sticking to the culture of pulling down each other, exhibiting the 'Pulling Down Syndrome'. We recall how the likes of Brig. Gen. Paul Boro (Rtd), late Prof. Charles Dokubo and others who are of Ijaw ethnic extraction were pulled down by our own people.
“It is sad that our people have maintained the trend of writing petitions to drag each other, rather than focusing on things that will move the Niger Delta region forward. The NDIG recalls that there was a time when a northerner was appointed on an Interim basis to head the PAP. Did they write petitions at the time?
“We have it on good authority that a portfolio contractor identified as Andrew Pinneh and his associates, had been threatening to blackmail the Interim Administrator for refusing to pay him a dubious sum of N1.5bn. The said contractor who owns NYEEAP SYNERGY CONSULTING LIMITED, never delivers in contracts awarded to him, and has been doing so in connivance with a suspected mole in the PAP Accounts Department.
“The NDIG also has it on record that the contractor was one of those used by late Dokubo to run fraudulent errands both in Nigeria and in the UK during the latter's time as Interim Administrator of the PAP.
“The Presidential Amnesty Programme receives a monthly budgetary allocation of N5bn. Out of this amount, over N3.8bn is exhausted on paying monthly stipends of ex-agitators with bulk payments to their leaders, who are called the 'Big Five', educational scholarships are also facilitated from this monthly fund. Unpaid contractors are settled from the same fund, the day-to-day running of the PAP office, stakeholders engagement meetings, and salaries of staff, are all sorted from this fund. So what remains to be diverted?
“Given this huge monthly expenditure of the PAP, the said sum of N12bn being diverted is laughable and unrealistic.
“These group of disgruntled elements have only been provoked by the refusal of Gen. Ndiomu to dance to their tune and the strictness of the Committee set up by the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) which recommended that contractors who did not execute their contracts should not be paid. This is the same culture in the NDDC, where contractors are fraudulently demanding payments for contracts they didn't execute.
“We are, however, aware that the majority of these ex-agitators are jobless and can be used as a tool for destruction. But the good news is that General Ndiomu is working tirelessly to create sustainable livelihoods for them. To this end, they must now desist from being continuously used as a tool in the hands of their brainless sponsors.”