Major General Barry Ndiomu (retd) has handed over the leadership of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, to Dr. Dennis Otuaro.
He handed over after 18 months in office.
Ita Henshaw, Technical Assistant to the former Interim Administrator handed over the notes to Otuaro in a brief ceremony at the PAP Office in Abuja on Monday.
In his brief remarks, Otuaro assured that he would not betray the trust reposed in him by President Bola Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.
He said his mission in the Presidential Amnesty Office is to render quality service to the Niger Delta region and the nation, stressing that there would be no room for failure.
Otuaro urged the members of staff to be focused and give him the requisite cooperation to move the office forward, while he also assured that he is not in the Amnesty Office to pursue personal gains even as he urged the members of staff to embrace his principle.
“I need everybody’s cooperation here to take this programme to greatness. My appeal here is that from today we should back the crowd and face the job. I need everyone’s cooperation so we don’t disappoint the President, the NSA, the people of the Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole.
“I believe in this country. Everything about me is in this country and it is also in the Niger Delta.
“We will streamline whatever that we know that is giving us the load to provide excuses; we must streamline some things and we’ll work together,” he stated.
It would be recalled that Tinubu had approved the appointment of Otuaro as Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme last Thursday.
Niger Delta youths will be expecting Otuaro to address the issues in the Niger Delta, as it concerns PAP and the struggle to better the lives of beneficiaries.
The Presidential Amnesty Programme was initiated and signed into law in 2009, to stem youth restiveness, agitation, and ruination of oil processing infrastructure in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region. The mandate was to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate ex-agitators back into society.
Armnesty: Ndiomu bows out as PAP boss, hands over to Otuaro