PAP Coordinator is For a N’Deltan not an Ijaw birthright- Group

By Philip Onome

Following a report by the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) warning President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to restrain from plot to appoint a non Ijaw Rtd army General as Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), a Group known as Crusade for Democracy and Good Governance (CDGG) has stated that the position of the PAP is not the sole right of the Ijaw Nation.

The IYC had in a world press conference threatened to down tools and cause caohs should President Bola Ahmed Tinubu go ahead to appoint a non Ijaw as PAP coordinator.

However, the group in a communique issued at the end of a closed door meeting and signed by the Executive Director Administration, Comr. Emmanuel Ughojor, made it clear that the Amnesty Programme was created to rehabilitate restive youths in the Niger Delta region, adding that the amnesty programme is not an exclusive right of the Ijaw nation.

The group stressed that there is need to employ the hands of competent and well experienced hand to handle the affairs of the programme, adding that if some one from other ethnic extraction in the Niger Delta region is the one chosen by our idifatigable president Bola Ahmed Tinubu to further transform our region, so be it.

The statement reads; “It should be made clear to the IYC and those nursing this selfish ambition that the presidential amnesty program is a regional office meant for the development of the youths in the Niger Delta region and the Ijaw race is nowhere superior to other tribes.

“Therefore, issuing threats and others can not deter Mr. President from choosing the right person for the job whether from Ijaw, Urhobo, Isoko or Ndowka Nation respectiviely. Furthermore, it is on record every that the federal government had appointed several Ijaw personalities into the PAP who mismanaged the position.

The group added; “The IYC is being goaded by tribal bigots in the Amnesty office and that we know. We know how they instigate protest and agitation from that same office the moment anything is not going in their favour.