Ndiomu Moves Against Niger Delta Indigenes As Amnesty Office Employs Over 80 Persons From Outside The Region…PAP Signs Contract To Pay HMO N250,000 Per Staff

By Bukar Bolori

Workers of the Presidential Amnesty Office have raised the alarm over the deployment of indigenes of the Niger Delta from the Presidential Amnesty Office by the Interim Administrator, Maj Gen Barry Ndiomu (Retd).

Some of the workers link the current move to alleged leakage of information on the activities of the leadership of the office.

Investigations revealed that indigenes of the Niger Delta in strategic positions were deployed back to the ministries and replaced.

According to the sources, those deployed include Oloye Kebbi (Peace Building Department), Mr. Okhuba – (Peace Building), Kennedy Febau (Peace Building Unit), Ebiere Ayamah (Vocational Training Unit), Jude Gbaboyor (Data/ICT), who was deployed to Warri, Delta State.Others are: Highcoast Ombe (Post Training Unit), Samuel Sunday (Post Training Unit), Pere Ikuetemi (Legal Dept), Gabriel Ajama (Data Unit) And Agiri Emmanuel, the Head of Data who was moved to Agabagba in Ondo State.

Ndiomu, was said to have taken the action, attributing the leakage of information to the Niger Delta indigenes working in the office.

The workers who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on it said that Ndiomu had authorized periodic seizure and search of the telephone of all members of staff of the office, with fear among the workers of the establishment that their telephones are bugged.

They stated further that while the Niger Delta indigenes were sent back to the ministries and others sent out of Abuja, over 80 persons have been employed in the Amnesty Office recently, most of them from Kogi.

The Head of Administration, Mrs Khairat Balogun is from Kogi State.

Mrs Balogun, a staff of NTA was recently replaced with a new Head of Administration but she held back.

The new Head of Administration deployed from the office of the Head of Service, has been left without an office while the Human Resources component has been removed from the Admin Department and put under Mrs Balogun’s supervision.

The affected Amnesty staff were removed with the claim by Ndiomu that his mission was to shut down the programme.

Shortly before the end of the Buhari administration, the then National Security Adviser, Gen. Babagana Monguno (Rtd.) made moves to shut down the Programme which was resisted by the leaders and people of the Niger Delta.

When Ndiomu was appointed, he said he was at the PAP with a mandate to wind down the programme.

However, the situation and tension in the region made it impossible for him to abruptly bring the programme to en end.

There are serious concerns that the leadership style has adversely affected the Amnesty Office which has been relieved of some of its key roles in the region. Ndiomu has since stopped fresh deployment of students for the scholarship programme which endeared government to many in the region.

Ndiomu also put an end to the training or empowerment programmes of delegates in the region and has been embarking on selective payment for existing contracts.

Investigations further revealed that the PAP under Ndiomu has entered into a contract with a Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), to pay monthly charges higher than the salaries of the affected workers.

It was gathered that under the contractual arrangement, the firm NOVO Health Africa Limited, would be paid N250,000 per month.

The N250,000 per month is made mandatory for all members of staff even when the salaries of most staff is not up to N250,000.

The source alleged that: “The office has ventured into a contractual agreement with an HMO company, NOVO Health Africa Limited.

“Going by the terms of the agreement, PAP pays N250,000 per month for each worker. Curiously, the staff salary is not up to N250,000 and it was made mandatory for all staff.

“We suspect that the cost is inflated to serve as conduit for the diversion of funds.”