Institute condemns attacks on Amnesty Programme chief Boroh

Yenagoa, Mike Odiegwu-

The Bayelsa State International Institute of Tourism and Hospitality (IITH) yesterday slammed critics of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

It said attacks on the programme’s Coordinator, Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh (rtd.), were unwarranted and misplaced.

The institute, which is one of the partners in PAP, flayed the Niger Deltans for Accountability and Good Governance (NDAGG) for its allegations that Gen. Boroh was not following due process in contract awards.

Speaking in Yenagoa, the Rector, IITF, Mr. Timi Johnson, said instead of vilification, Gen. Boroh should be commended for observing due process in award of contracts and engagement of service vendors.

Johnson said: “We want to say that the allegation by NDAGG that Boroh is awarding contracts or engagement of service without following due process is immoral, unfounded, unwarranted and misplaced.”

One major innovation adopted by the Amnesty Office is the important decision by Gen. Paul Boroh to personally lead a delegation of top officials from Abuja to carry out rigorous verification of claims by prospective partners and vendors.

Boroh follows this through to their existing facilities as claimed in their proposals including that presented by the institute before approval is given for the Memorandum of Understanding and commencement of training and empowerment project.

This process was the experience of this Institute before the approval of the first batch of 1,000 beneficiaries to be trained in 2017.

It is on record that those (beneficiaries) trained by the Institute and who graduated two weeks ago, were on June 20, 2017, empowered with starter packs in Catering and Fashion Designing worth several millions of naira, courtesy of Boroh’s reforms in line with the mandate of the PAP for full integration of delegates (ex-militants) that successfully completed their training.”

Johnson said the plot by the fifth columnists to protest against Boroh was like “mere traducers that fed fat in the past through award of phoney contracts and diversion of funds” which Boroh’s leadership stopped.
He said the amnesty boss successfully checked crass opportunism, rot, indiscipline and inexorable mess that characterised the programme.

We therefore call on President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore the antics of mischief makers and enemies of the Niger Delta who are again colluding to fan the embers of violence and demean the good intentions of Boroh and his team.


The performance of Boroh is an eloquent testimony of a true son of the Niger Delta who is currently waging war to break the jinx and sustain the existing peace, development and progress of the region.

Comments