There is palpable tension in the Niger Delta region as the Chairman of the Niger Delta First Phase Ex-agitators’ Leadership Forum, Bayelsa State Chapter, High Chief Charles Kurobo, has raised the alarm that the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has delisted the running mate to the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State from its payroll.

According to him, the forum’s investigation revealed that the Interim Administrator of the PAP, Gen. Barry Ndiomu (rtd), without any reasonable cause, directed that all the entitlements of the APC Gubernatorial running mate, Great Joshua MacIver, who was the first to embrace the amnesty program with over 200 followers, should be withdrawn.

Several attempts to reach the amnesty office for comments proved abortive at the time of filing this report. However, the ex-agitators have said that they may be forced to resort to extreme measures to resolve the anomalies since efforts to make the PAP boss see reason with them have continued to fall on deaf ears.

The group said that the height of the controversy is when the PAP claimed that Great MacIver, a major critical stakeholder of the first phase ex-agitators who surrendered arms alongside his foot soldiers numbering well above 200 from his own personal camp and have remained beneficiaries of the programme with their ID card numbers and monthly stipends, is no longer part of the programme.

The statement Issued in Yenagoa by Kurobo read, “Following appeals and complaints concerning the style and gross lack of integrity of the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP) office under the current administrator, we are writing to notify the National Security Adviser (NSA) of the lingering controversies between the office and its beneficiaries.

“His actions have continued to put pressure on the leadership of the forum with limited resources to ease the tension while calls for the attention of Ndiomu have continuously fallen on deaf ears. We have almost exhausted the immediate and most preferred formal means of communication in trying to reach out to the leadership of the PAP as beneficiaries and stakeholders of the region.

“We have been receiving a series of complaints over non-payment of monthly stipends from a large number of the PAP beneficiaries, which has kept us awake most nights.

While we continue to apply corporate and more responsible measures in dealing with it, the Interim Administrator has further dared us to claim that one of our own, De-Great Joshua MacIver, a major critical stakeholder of the first phase ex-agitators who surrendered arms alongside his foot soldiers numbering well above 200 from his own personal camp alone were captured and have remained beneficiaries of the programme with their ID card numbers and monthly stipends.

“Yet, Ndiomu deems them unworthy, according to his media publications. Such a critical major stakeholder who is a popular and notably well-known leader in the PAP database is suddenly not on the database of the PAP. This situation has made Gen. Ndiomu feel he is a political tool, and by this singular act, we feel he has gone too far!

“Why Bayelsa? Why now? Would Gen. Barry Ndiomu have done the same if Joshua MacIver shared his political interest? Or if ex-militants are deemed unfit for political offices across the region, why then do we have one of our own (Rt. Hon Abraham Ingobere) as the Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly?

“We are appealing and looking up to the NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, with the hope that swift action will be taken to avert the crisis Ndiomu is trying to create because we feel pushed too close to the edge already. We will not be swayed by Ndiomu as it has become clear that he is not on the side of peace.” (Nigerian Tribune)