Some former Niger-Delta agitators have berated their colleagues for not crediting President Muhammadu Buhari for the Presidential Amnesty Programme Oil and Gas Basic Skills Vocational Training Centre recently inaugurated at Agadagba, in the Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State.
A leader of the group, Timothy Tensibe, said he was disappointed that the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, was getting credit for the centre.
Tensibe, in a statement on Wednesday, said barely two days after the facility was inaugurated for the commencement of training of the beneficiaries of the amnesty programme in oil and gas skills, some persons started giving the Ondo State Government credit for the project.
While citing a report published in a national newspaper (not The PUNCH), he said some ex-militants hailed Akeredolu for the project and promised to support him.
Tensibe said Buhari and the coordinator of the amnesty programme, Prof Charles Dokubo, deserved credit too.
“While we hold the belief that the newly inaugurated oil and gas training centre at Agadagba, owned by the amnesty programme, will enhance the training of thousands of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the programme to fast-track development in the entire Niger Delta region, it is dubious for any individual or group to commend the government of Ondo State for keeping to its promises to former Niger-Delta agitators.
“This is because besides the fact that the Agadagba Oil and Gas Basic Skills Vocational Training Centre is not an initiative of the Ondo State Government, it was solely funded by the Federal Government through the Presidential Amnesty Programme with a vision driven to an enviable end by Prof Dokubo, acting on the mandate and guidance of President Buhari,” he said in the statement.