Seyi Odewale
Group under the aegis of Niger Delta Volunteers for Good Governance (NDVFGG) has threatened to lockdown economic activities in the Niger Delta region over the alleged marginalisation of Edo and Delta states in the appointment of principal officers into the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

The group further condemned the planned winding up of the PAP by the Federal Government, urging the government to re-strategise to accomplish the spirit of the initiators of the programme considering the achievements reached so far.

A statement by the National President of the group, Ben Bowei, and coordinators from Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Ondo states, frowned on the neglect of Edo and Delta states in the appointment of a coordinator for the programme and other principal officers since its inception.

The group alleged that outside denials of the states in the appointment of principal officers, applicants from the two states for vocational training and scholarship had often been rejected.

“The Niger Delta Volunteers for Good Governance (NDVFGG) has observed that there has been a deliberate neglect of qualified indigenes of Edo and Delta states in the area of appointment as co-ordinator and/or other principal staffs in the Presidential Amnesty Program office from inception till date.

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“It is our collective resolution that the above-listed States have been neglected by the Federal Government in the scheme of things, especially in the area of appointment in the PAP office since the disarmament in 2009.

“It is also a truism that the above states have also suffered similar fates in the area of reintegration and empowerment contrary to the spirit and letters of the Presidential Amnesty Program as constituted by His Excellency Late Former President Musa Yaradua in 2009.

“The marginalisation of these states has left a distasteful taste in the mouths of the ex-agitators and impacted communities because delegates who applied for vocational training in the program are often rejected and the same position applies to those who applied for a scholarship to acquire Higher Education at the tertiary level.

“Such persons are extorted and not given equal opportunities and a level playing field by the office representing the government,” it added.

The group, therefore, called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency, consider the plights of these states to forestall the breakdown of law and order.