Ex-agitators commend Tinubu on Ribadu’s NSA appointment, urge him to be wary of Sycophants

By Peters Monday, Abuja

The Leadership of the Ex-agitators Forum has commended President Bola Tinubu over the appointment of Nuhu Ribadu as the National Security Adviser, NSA, saying that Ribadu should be wary of sycophants and mediocre in the Niger Delta Region.

This was contained in a statement signed by the chairman and sent to a Congress news correspondent during the weekend.

The statement reads, “Your enviable success deserves acknowledgement, worthy of emulation. Your appointment as the National Security Advicer (NSA) simply means the current administration will achieve its goal on security and related matters.
May we also use this opportunity to congratulate the newly appointed Service Chiefs who constitute the National Security team of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and commend President Tinubu’s preparedness towards the inherited security challenges. We assure you and the national security architecture under your watch, of our support and contribution, in any way possible, as you propel a safe and secured Nigeria for Nigerians, to sustain a peaceful coexistence in our Niger Delta Region.

“On behalf of the Ex-Agitators’ Leadership Forum (EALF), Bayelsa State Chapter, we take a further step to wish and advise the newly appointed National Security Adviser (NSA) of Nigeria, Nuhu Ribadu, to keep the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Major General Barry Ndiomu (RTD) and his melodramatic praise singers at bay, if he must succeed in maintaining the relative peace currently enjoyed in the Niger Delta Region.”

The Chairman of the Ex-Agitators Leadership Forum, Gen.Charles Kurobo James maintained that while in office, Major General Barry Ndiomu (RTD) padded the monthly Payroll of the Amnesty Programme with unidentified names white elephant projects through which massive embezzlement of funds running into billions of naira was being diverted as the funds meant for the programme’s Empowerment and Reintegration packages for ex-agitators who are left to their fate, continue to wallow in abject poverty in the creeks of the region.

Kurobo reiterated that Major Gen. Barry Ndiomu is currently using the said looted funds to sponsor publications signed by monarchs who have lost relevance in their various domains due to mediocrity and self-acclaimed militant generals in a bid to cajole the Presidency for an extension of his stay in office as the Interim Administrator of the PAP.

“We advise otherwise, as it will ridicule the image of the current administration that has started so well already. If you read the publications suggesting that ex-agitators from the nine Niger Delta states are calling on the NSA to reappoint Gen. Barry Ndiomu as the next Interim Administrator of PAP, you will see a desperate man drowning in misappropriation and gross abuse of office because there are no answers to questions of who Gershom Mpaka Gbobo is or what he represents at the PAP, to author a Press Statement in favour of Gen. Ndiomu and there is no known group such as Coalition of Ex-agitators of Niger Delta (CEND) in the Niger Delta.

“The obvious facts point to a desperate General who has lost grip seeking a soft landing. False names were used to cover up the schemes of Ndiomu. We are not surprised because he has a lot of false names padded up in the PAP database for the diversion of N65,000.00 monthly allowance for supposed beneficiaries of over 1000 Ex-Agitators.

“We, therefore stand on our resolve and appeal that His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR), extend his house cleaning exercise into financial misappropriation and gross abuse of the office of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) because the interventionist Programme has become a cash-cow for successive Interim Administrators,” he said.