The Ijaw Youth Network (IYN) has condemned recent attacks and blackmail by a so-called “Niger Delta Concerned Youths for Change” against the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Dr Dennis Otuaro.

The IYN, in a statement signed by its President, Frank Ebikabo, and Secretary, Federal Ebiaridor, on Saturday, described the group’s allegation of mismanagement of the programme against Otuaro as “baseless, malicious, and unfounded.”

Ebikabo and Ebiaridor said the attacks and blackmail were part of a coordinated campaign to give the Otuaro a bad name and distract him from the remarkable work he is doing in the Niger Delta.

The group stressed that “the wicked plots to derail the programme will fail like others before them.”

They stated that the serial attacks and blackmail smack of pure hatred for Otuaro, considering that he had blocked all loopholes, which the misguided attackers, blackmailers and their sponsors were using to siphon funds meant for the execution of the programme’s mandate.

“Every other week, a new ghost group springs up with similar accusations, a pattern designed to harass and discredit a man whose only offence is his diligence, transparency, and love for the Niger Delta.

“We, as concerned stakeholders, strongly condemn these attacks and blackmail and urge the discerning public to discountenance them,” the statement read.

Ebikabo and Ebiaridor noted that Otuaro had sanitised the PAP through deliberate reforms, which had led to expansion of the programme’s scholarship and vocational training schemes to create more opportunities for the former agitators and beneficiaries of the programme.