The Interim Administrator, PAP, Maj. Gen. Barry Ndiomu (rtd.) paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama at his office in Abuja.
The visit according to the PAP Boss was a thank-you visit for the enormous support the PAP has enjoyed from the Foreign Affairs Ministry over the years.
”I thought that one of the very important institutions or ministries that i must visit is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because of the relationship between your ministry and the PAP over the years. whatever successes we may have recorded especially in the area of educational training for scholarship schemes and vocational training abroad would not have been possible without the Foreign Affairs Ministry and I thought that this must be one of the first places I will visit to express our gratitude for all you have been doing to support the PAP.
Ndiomu also thanked the Minister for the successful evacuation of PAP students in Ukraine.
”Your ministry has been responsible for assisting us with our activities in relation to the movement of deployment of student overseas, payment of their school fees, ensuring their welfare and more recently, I would like to thank the Honourable Minister for the support provided to our students during the time of the crises in Ukraine and they were successfully evacuated, and we are most grateful.”
Furthermore, the Amnesty Boss said, ”At the time I was appointed, my mandate was to wind down the programme and I engaged the stakeholders by visiting the region and talking to the different categories and classes of people, the ex-agitators themselves, traditional institutions, the leaders across the Niger Delta region and it became apparent that they were certainly not prepared for the abrupt truncation of the PAP because we also found out in the course of the engagement that most of the objectives for which the programme itself was establish had not actually been realized and we need to review that position and I have to return to the government to advise them accordingly.
”Fortunately, the government gave a listening ear and decided to suspend the idea of an abrupt end to the Amnesty Programme. Now, we are trying to reposition the programme in such a way that we can move gradually towards exiting the ex-agitators who have been captured in the programme by ensuring they are trained.”
Responding, the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs congratulated the Interim Administrator, PAP on his appointment and thanked him for the services he has rendered to the country in the past.
”I want to thank and congratulate you for the services you have rendered in the past to the country and that you continue to render now in this new capacity. To also congratulate you on your appointment as the Interim Administrator for the Presidential Amnesty Programme and it is interesting listening to what you have said about the programme and where it is at the moment.”
The Minister also assured of the ministries continuous support to the PAP.
Lawson Alaenetonwa
Head Information, PAP
