N’Delta leaders hail Dikio for restoring peace, sticking to mandate

Niger Delta leaders have applauded the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd), for restoring peace to the region and sticking to the mandate of the programme.

This is contained in a statement by Dikio’s spokesperson, Nneota Egbe. It quoted the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, as commending Dikio for delivering the mandate of the scheme with lean resources.

According to him, Dikio’s remarkable achievements were a clear demonstration of his zeal to find himself on the right side of history. 

Sylvia said: “We have to as a people stand together. We have had the Presidential Amnesty Programme for a long time but we have not been fortunate. If you look at what the programme was meant to achieve, we have currently not achieved it.” 

Sylva called on the region to close ranks to attract more development and lauded Dikio’s Train, Employ and Mentor (TEM) scheme, saying it had made the training of ex-agitators more rewarding. 

Commenting on Dikio’s achievement, Sylva said: “If at this moment you’re doing so much with the little you’re getting, we can only imagine what you would have done during the hay days of the amnesty programme when there was a huge cash flow.” 

SIMILARLY, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), according to the statement, has been particularly impressed with Dikio’s efforts at transforming ex-agitators into entrepreneurs

The forum noted that plans, reforms and programmes introduced by Dikio underscored his focus to actualise the mandate of PAP since he took over the amnesty office a year ago.

PANDEF’s Chairman, Emmanuel Essien,  described the reintegration programme of Dikio as unique, saying all stakeholders from the region were behind him.

He said: “We are very happy with his performance in the presidential amnesty office.  He is doing very well, compared to the past administrators that have been there. As a matter of fact, he is really focusing on the core mandate of the presidential amnesty; so, we are very happy with him and we congratulate him on his first one year in office.”

IJAW Youth Congress spokesperson, Ebilade Ekerefe, applauded Dikio for his constant engagements with stakeholders in the region, noting it was a clear departure from previous administrations. 

He said: “For us, Col. Dikio (rtd) has done beyond the expectations of many persons, especially taking into consideration those who have manned that office in recent times. He has been able to stabilise the programme and many stakeholders are very pleased with his strategies.

Ebilade said Dikio’s engagements led to the peace and stability in the region observing that the amnesty boss would not allow any month to pass without visiting Niger Delta to interface with stakeholders.

Ex-agitators recently warned of consequences if Dikio was stoppeds from implementing his vision to actualise the mandates of the scheme.

An Ex-agitators, Nature Dumale, said since he assumed office,  Dikio had never wasted time blaming his predecessors for running down the programme. Instead, he said the amnesty boss rolled up his sleeves, formulated and implemented reforms to correct the ills of PAP and reposition it to actualize its mandate.