A pressure group and think tank, the Niger Delta Peace Advocates (NDPA), has flayed ex-militant leader and self-styled Urhobo Mayor, Eshanakpe Israel, a.k.a Akpodoro, for making inciting comments capable of affecting peace in the region.
The NDPA, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, said that very reasonable and right-thinking people should be concerned over the unguarded statements from some ex-militants and their so-called leaders.
The statement jointly signed by NDPA Chairman, Ebitimi Kurowei, and Secretary, Amangiye Thomas, faulted Akpodoro for playing the ethnic card in a period where Nigerians needed to be more united to overcome the current challenges threatening the country’s nationhood.
The group said: “It is most unfortunate that the self-styled Mayor of Urhobo and others like him are fanning the embers of disunity and ethnicity to further divide the people of the Niger Delta who need to close ranks to make their voices heard in this era of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.”
They stressed that accusing the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) of favouring one ethnic group over others is not only an absurdity, but a mindset that must be condemned in strong terms.
“The interim administrator has been a distinguished officer of the Nigerian armed forces, who retired as a Major General in the Nigerian army, apparently living all his adult life in ensuring that Nigeria remains indivisible and a united country.”
The group also emphasised that it observed that since his assumption of office, the interim administrator has been pragmatic in managing the amnesty programme by blocking areas of leakages and redirecting scarce resources to schemes to impact directly on genuine beneficiaries who have been neglected in the past.
The group added: “Akpodoro and others are either ill-informed or were being mischievous, as everyone knows that those captured under the programme are structured into phases.
“Threatening to attack critical national assets is criminal, a threat to national security and should be treated as a treasonable felony. The security agencies should not hesitate in arresting and prosecuting them to serve as a deterrent to others.
“The culture of entitlement among some ex-militants must not only stop, but must be discouraged because this has seriously promoted laziness and crime among youths across the region.”
