The Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, in an appeal for adequate funding of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) for it to function effectively, has advocated for the need of state government and members of the National Assembly from the Niger Delta region to collaborate in addressing the funding challenges bedeviling the PAP.

Governor Diri, who said that funding is critical for the success of the Amnesty Programme, made the appeal when he received the PAP Administrator, High Chief Dr Dennis Otuaro, and his delegation in Government House, Yenagoa, on Friday, November 1, 2024.

He said: "There is no place that will survive without funds. These are some of the issues that we as governors can also support in ensuring that our National Assembly members make the contacts and synergise so that these issues will not be left for you alone to handle."

He counseled Otuaro to build linkages across relevant state governments within the region to ensure that the programme made a meaningful impact, noting that the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, also faces similar challenges, which had affected its activities.

The Bayelsa governor also cautioned against the call for the scrapping of the programme, saying the issues that led to its establishment are yet to be addressed.

According to governor Diri, despite the transition to renewable energy, crude oil production still plays a vital role in the nation's economy and advocates for continuation of the programme.

He also stressed that PAP was not a gift to the Niger Delta region, but that it was deliberately designed to bring some form of succour to the abandoned oil-rich region, saying that, "I like my brothers from other states to recognise that amnesty was not a gift to the Niger Delta, but to bring succour to a people that had been abandoned."

The governor who recalled a brief history of the armed struggle of the Ijaw people from the days of Jasper Adaka Boro, stressed on the critical place of the PAP in the region.

"The ljaws, for long, have been suffocated in a structure that they had given their all in terms of human and natural resources. Over the years, there has been a long cry of neglect and underdevelopment. The initial armed struggle in Ijawland basically fought for justice and development. The community called Oloibiri in Bayelsa State, where crude oil was first struck in commercial quantities in 1956, is now a shadow of itself. Nothing was ploughed back into Oloibiri that brought out all the trillions of naira for Nigeria," he noted.

While commending the previous administrators of the programme for creating training centres across the region, the governor decried the vandalism at the training centre in Kaiama in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of the state and urged Otuaro to revamp it.

Meanwhile in his remarks, the PAP Administrator revealed that the Amnesty Programme is at the rehabilitation and reintegration stage and that there was a need to consult with all relevant stakeholders to ensure its success.

Otuaro requested the support of the state government in the area of funding for its training programmes, while he noted that from 2014, funding for the Programme was reduced by half while the Programme's scope was expanding, particularly when it had about 1,681 students in tertiary institutions in the country and 38 students studying abroad. 

Otuaro also disclosed that 98 maritime cadets have just been deployed within the country, stressing that there was a need to expand the programme to accommodate women stakeholders that are business-oriented. 

He applauded Governor Diri for his administration's efforts in ensuring that Bayelsa remained peaceful, adding that Ijaw people were happy with the prevailing peace and security as Bayelsa is the homogenous state for all ljaws.

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