Diaspora group commends Buhari for sustaining amnesty program in the Niger Delta

President Muhammadu Buhari has been commended for sustaining the amnesty program in the Niger Delta region which has witnessed improved funding in the last five years.

The commendation came from a group, Nigerian Diaspora Professionals Forum (NDPF) which praised Buhari’s determined effort to sustain the amnesty program and improve security and stability in the Niger Delta.

Addressing journalists at the departure wing of the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State on Friday the vice president of the organisation Dr. Abdalla Hussein confirmed that a seven-man fact-finding mission visited the Nigeria delta to assess the security situation and suggest ways to improve it.
“We came on a verification mission in Niger Delta to see things for ourselves. The issues revolve around development challenges. But we are glad to note that in the past four years, one hardly hears about the destruction of oil installations, organised confrontation or similar conflicts in this region.

“We have visited the nine states in the region and will be heading to Abuja later today. We want to learn more about the development challenges in the region, the amnesty program and how the Buhari administration has managed to sustain peace so far. It is clear to all stakeholders that we need peace for investment and development,” Abdalla Hussein stated.

Speaking in the same light, one of the members of the delegation Mr. Abiye Davies confirmed that the group visited several vocational training centres built by the program in many locations like Gelegele in Edo State, Bomadi in Delta State and Oboama in Rivers State.

According to him “The Niger Delta Amnesty Program has achieved so much and has become an important example that many resource rich African countries can learn from. With the implementation of the program now in the Integration phase, the ex-agitators who were formerly involved in conflict have become gainfully employed and can now go back into society as responsible citizens.”

Abiye Davis also commended the coordinator of the amnesty program, Charles Dokubo for ongoing reforms and transformation, especially his determination to rid the system of corruption, urging him not to be deterred by sponsored media attacks in some quarters which he said was the hallmark of enemies of progress who are always there in every progressive institution to cause distraction.

“We are aware that recently the program was audited by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) and handed it a clean bill of health. This is quite commendable on the part of the coordinator. Those of us from the Niger Delta can now see a clear difference between social media driven fake news and reality on group. We note that despite the efforts of successive administrations to develop the region that produces much of Nigeria’s oil, poverty and human capital deficits persisted here. But the current president Muhammadu Buhari is doing all that is humanly possible to bring the needed change,” he stated.

It would be recalled that earlier in the year, the former Group Managing Director of Nigeria’s National Oil Company, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru confirmed an increase in the country’s oil production which moved to 2.32 million barrels per day.

The development is seen as a big boost to government’s revenue projection in the N8.92 trillion 2019 budget. The budget, signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on May 27, was based on a target of 2.3 million barrels per day (b/d) oil production and $60 per barrel price. A major reason for this boost is said to be linked to the fact that most of the ex-agitators were absorbed in the amnesty program.