The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Major-General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd), has expressed the readiness of his administration to collaborate with governments at all levels, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to provide sustainable empowerment for Niger Delta youths, especially the ex-agitators.

Ndiomu stated this during a meeting with a delegation from the Youth Empowerment and Social Support Operations (YESSO) of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation at the PAP headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.

The Interim Administrator stated that there is a nexus between the PAP empowerment programmes and those of the ministry, which he insisted if well harnessed, would present huge potentials and benefits to youths of the Niger Delta.

He promised to provide different skill-sets for ex-agitators through the various vocational training centres in Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, and Rivers states, expressing hope that the youths could be trained and empowered to drive the economy of the region when the centres become functional.

Ndiomu said: “The major problem we have in the Niger Delta is pipeline vandalism. It happens because many of the youths don’t have skills for gainful employment and economic contributions and self-sustenance.

“It is my belief that your Ministry should have collaborated with the PAP from the very beginning. Going forward, any collaboration has to be deliberate and planned for effectiveness.

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“We have turned the Presidential Amnesty Programme around and changing the lives of ex-agitators through our legacy projects and what we require is support towards the cooperative scheme which is up and running and helping ex-agitators to become entrepreneurs and for those with functional businesses to expand their investments.”

Ndiomu noted that the relative calmness in the region was over the deliberate policies, programmes, and activities of the PAP, which he said the people have embraced.

He added: “We have initiated the cooperative scheme. What we have started is on course. But funding is inadequate. We need funding to tackle and reverse the huge poverty in the Niger Delta region.

“The way to go about it is this cooperative scheme. It is still not as widespread as it should be.”

He further stated that his administration has cleared debts inherited just as it reviewed and renegotiated bloated contracts that it also inherited

Speaking, the Programme Manager of YESSO, Richard Romanus, said the visit was to seek cooperation and collaboration with the PAP in line with the Ministry’s YESSO Hubs, which he said currently operates to train youths of the South South region in the maritime, agriculture and other sectors of the economy.

He thanked Ndiomu for receiving the YESSO team, adding that a report on the visit would be submitted to the minister to plan for the way forward with a view to cementing the areas of possible collaboration.

The Star