PAP Strategic in Resolving Conflicts, Entrenching Peace in N’Delta—Ndiomu

In a bid to provide a permanent peace in Niger Delta, the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Gen. Barry Ndiomu (rtd) on Friday said the programme remained a critical tool to resolve conflicts and create peace in the oil-rich region.

Ndiomu reiterated while delivering a lecture on Friday at the National Defence College Abuja, that 13 years down the line, the Amnesty Office had played a more critical role in stemming agitations, compared to the efforts of other intervention modules in the past.

Addressing participants in a lecture tagged ‘’Concepts of War and Theories of Peace in Conflict Management: Niger Delta Post – Amnesty Programme in Perspective’’, to mark the Module 7 of the lecture series of the College, the PAP boss listed corruption, inadequate funding, lack of political will and other factors, as responsible for the failure of various intervention agencies in the region.

PAP administrator, who was represented by Flight Lieutenant Terry Ajogbena (rtd), his Technical Assistant emphasized that the PAP had since embarked on its “3 Prong Model” – Robust Stakeholder Engagement, Strategic & Targeted Communication and Community Outreach, Peace Building & Reconciliation to manage conflicts in the Niger Delta.

Ndiomu added that the PAP is only a comprehensive arm of the Niger Delta Recovery Plan (NDRP), which also had the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Ministry of Environment.

“The PAP is essentially a capacity building programme,” he noted.

While answering questions on environmental remediation from participants at the lecture, the Ndiomu stressed that the Amnesty Programme had trained ex-agitators in environmental cleaning as well as remediation and made reference to Government Ekpomupolo, aka Tompolo whose Tantita Security Services Limited is executing a Pipeline Surveillance Contract for the Federal Government.

He stated that the region had enjoyed relative peace, with no reports of blowing up of pipelines and an increase in crude oil production.

In a remark, Deputy Commandant of the National Defence College, Major General Lawrence Fejokwu noted that since 1958 till date, various intervention agencies have struggled to address agitations in the region.

Ndiomu further narrated that when the Amnesty Programme kicked off, it was so successful such that other countries facing similar challenges, came to Nigeria to understudy the Programme.

It would be recalled that PAP as initiated and signed into law by late former President Umaru Yar’Adua on June 25, 2009, was conceived as a special interventionist programme of the Federal Government to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate ex-agitators who responded to calls to lay down their arms.