The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Maj.-Gen. Barry Ndiomu (Rtd), says corruption is one of the major factors responsible for the failure of various federal government’s intervention agencies in the Niger Delta region.
Ndiomu, who spoke on Friday while delivering a lecture at the National Defence College, Abuja, also said the PAP remains a critical tool to mitigate conflicts in the oil-rich region.
The lecture was entitled: “Concepts of War and Theories of Peace in Conflict Management: Niger Delta Post – Amnesty Programmes in Perspective”, to mark the Module 7 of the lecture series of the College.
Daily Trust recalls that the PAP, which was initiated and signed into law by late former President Umaru Yar’Adua on June 25, 2009, was conceived as a special intervention programme of the government to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate ex-agitators who responded to calls to lay down their arms.
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Delivering the lecture, Ndiomu, who was represented by his Technical Assistant, Flight Lieutenant Terry Ajogbena (rtd) recalled that 13 years down the line, the PAP had played a more critical role in stemming agitations, compared to the efforts of other intervention modules in the past.
Apart from corruption, he listed inadequate funding and lack of political will as other factors responsible for the failure of various intervention agencies in the region.
In his remark, Deputy Commandant of the National Defence College, Maj.-Gen. Lawrence Fejokwu, noted that since 1958 till date, various intervention agencies have struggled to address agitations in the region.
