The Presidential Amnesty Programme has been restructured by the Interim Administrator to address restiveness and unemployment in the Niger Delta region by providing youths with necessary skills.
Major-General Barry Ndiomu has sought assistance from the Nigerian Ports Authority in some of the programmes.
A statement issued in Abuja on Friday by his Special Assistant on Media, Freston Akpor, said Ndiomu stated these during a courtesy call on the Managing Director of the NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, and other management teams in Lagos.
He said, “When I took over in September 2022, I discovered that the programme had been drifting away from the core objectives of why it was established. I have to redirect the vision towards the initial concept, which is essentially to build the capacity of the teeming restive youths in the region. Like they say, ‘an idle mind is the devil’s workshop’. When these boys are jobless, what do you expect from them? They engage in criminal activities, including pipeline vandalization, piracy and other activities which affect the economy.”
According to him, the PAP has five vocational centres, which were established with different specialisations such as in Agadagba in Ondo state aimed at training youths in oil and gas related activities and another in Bomadi, Delta state with the objectives of building capacity in energy related activities while the one in Rivers state is for deep sea diving training.
While lamenting that the centre in Boro town, Bayelsa State was vandalised after its completion, Ndiomu solicited technical support as well as long-term strategic collaboration in utilising one of the jetties of the NPA for the deep sea diving school in Rivers state.
