PAP: Odogwu Tackles New Amnesty Boss Over Latest Decision On Those With Multiple Bank Accounts

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A Niger Delta stakeholder, Dr. Tam Odogwu have tackled the new Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Gen.  Barry Tariye Ndiomu (Rtd) over his recent move on those with multiple bank accounts linked with one BVN. 

Dr. Odogwu had called on the PAP Interim Administrator to reconsider his decision or be ready to face legal action from him and other generals in the programme. 

This was contained in a statement he personally signed, a copy of which was sent to The Liberator Newspapers Worldwide earlier today. 

The statement reads below:

PAP Administration: Major Gen. Ndiomu (Rtd)’s Gross Incompetence

The recent deplorable development in the administration of the Federal Government’s Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) called for urgent and drastic rejoinder. General Barry Tariye Ndiomu’s recent actions contravened the philosophy and good spirit for which the Program was initiated. The interim Administrator has displayed the highest level of ignorance and incompetency in office by acting without knowledge and depth of intelligence when he recently published names of PAP generals as fraudulent people under the guise that their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) were linked with more than one account of beneficiaries of PAP. 

Before going public with such cheap and lame claim, what a good administrator does in such cases is to critically investigate and exhaust all avenue for information and clarification before reaching a conclusion that is as heavy as corruption verdict.  This administrative failure will not only be condemned publicly but also legally visited if a public apology is not immediately rendered for calling responsible personalities fraudulent and irregular beneficiaries of PAP and consequently pay them their dues under the program. 

The incompetence of Rtd. Major Gen Barry Tariye Ndiomu was again displayed when he forgot to jettison the administrative inefficiencies and political infiltration, segregation and discrimination that led to some persons getting bulk payment, while others with his concocted allegation of several accounts linkage with a single BVN were ignored. General Ndiomu being a retired military officer and a Barrister at law ought to know the difference between someone fraudulently extracting money from  an agency without authorization and someone getting his or her entitlement with the full approval from the agency. 

The Amnesty programme was not established to function as the Nigeria Army, Police or the Civil Service, rather it was formed based on solidarity of camps and groups of ex-agitators in the Niger Delta region; where every camp or group has a leader nicknamed “General”  to  whom slots for PAP enlistment were assigned in accordance with the numbers of arm or guns his group or camp members surrendered informed by the personality and influence of such group leader in the concerned Niger Delta community. At the inception of the Program, payment of benefits was originally made in bulk to the camp leaders for onward distribution to their boys (ex-agitators) since the camp leaders know their boys, their strengths and level of involvement in the struggle. Politics script in after few months where segregation was perfected and bulk payment was restricted to only Phase 1 leaders; whereas, Phases 2 & 3 leaders were asked to submit account numbers of their boys which was graciously delivered.

The onset of the current impasse was direct payment of stipends to the boys under the leaders in Phase 2 &3 without reference to the camp leaders. The boys became stronger than their leaders and always disappeared whenever payment was made forgetting the fact that the camp leaders run an elaborate system of settlement within the camps beyond those enlisted as beneficiaries since the slots can not go around at once. Therefore it was purely the responsibility of a camp leader to use the available slots to manage the boys in his camp. As the boys ho are benefiting from direct payments from PAP office continued to disappear, the remaining boys in the various camps started fighting their camp leaders and it got deadly at a point that even the Amnesty Peace-building Office was not spared. Therefore, the only viable modality to solve the problem was to fashion out a means where the camp leader will still be in control of the disbursement so as to manage the boys in his camp and sustain peace in the region. This modality has helped stem the tide of violence across camps, to which few God-fearing people in the Amnesty Peace-building Unit can testify.

Giving the foregoing and giving that General Ndiomu (Rtd) did not reconcile this fundamental history of the Programme, I, Dr Tam Odogwu in solidarity with other affected camp leaders hereby to maintained that General Ndiomu demonstrated deliberate mischief and act of incompetence by hasting to the press with awkward allegation of fraud and financial corruption against people of great character reputed for working tirelessly to sustain peace and promote tranquility in the volatile region of Niger Delta. 

Lastly, we take cognizance of the fact that linking a BVN to more than one account or multiple accounts is not fraudulent under the banking laws in Nigeria as long as the ownership of the said accounts and quoted BVN is not in doubt.  What General Ndiomu and ill-advisers failed to investigate was why or the motive behind and when the modality came to effect. We hereby made bold to say that best solution for now is to grant bulk payment to all affected camp leaders if Ndiomu is not comfortable with the submitted BVNs and accounts. If this is done without delay, we will forgive his incompetence in this direction and the administrative recklessness of different treatments for same people; if not, we promise further and stringent action including legal option to seek redress and ensure justice on the basis of which the Niger Delta region can progress. What is good for the goose is good for  the gander

Signed

Dr Tam Odogwu

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