The Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Dr Dennis Otuaro, has appealed to the Niger Delta youths to sustain the existing peace in the region.
Otuaro made the appeal at the 57th year remembrance of late Maj. Isaac Boro held in Warri on Friday.
The event was convened by the Western Zone of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), comprising Edo, Delta and Ondo.
The late Boro died in 1968 at 29.
In a speech at the event, Otuaro urged the youths “to love one another as well as your neighbours”.
Otuaro, who assumed office on March 14, 2024 as PAP administrator, said he had expanded the amnesty programme in the last one year in order to accommodate more beneficiaries.
“I have been in the office of the amnesty programme in just one year.
“So far, I am about to expand the programme to accommodate more people.
“We have about 30,000 people in the data base, but we are all victims of the struggle,” he said.
He said as a product of the struggle, he would ensure that the programme got to our people, including women and children.
“We are going to accommodate everybody to sustain the peace in the Niger Delta.
“Everybody will be carried along, if you come with genuine complaint, I will listen,” he said.
Otuaro urged the people to appreciate and manage the little they had gotten from the government.
He said that he remained focused in the discharge of his official responsibilities, adding that he “does not listen to distractors.
“We should not be greedy in managing whatever opportunity we have for our people.
“That is my philosophy in PAP,” he said.
He thanked the people for their unwavering support, and urged them to sustain it to enable him to adequately execute the responsibilities of his office.
He also urged them to support government at all levels.
In a remark, the Chairman of IYC, Western Zone, Mr Nicholas Igarama, also urged the Ijaw youths to draw renewed inspiration from Boro’s fearless legacy, as they confront growing political and developmental injustices in the region.
Igarama described Boro as “a rare revolutionary, who laid down his life in defence of the Ijaw people and Niger Delta, at large.
“We gather here not just to celebrate, but to reflect deeply on the vision, boldness, and sacrifices of our pathfinder, Boro.
“He confronted environmental degradation, economic exploitation, and political marginalisation head-on, at a time doing so meant risking everything,” he said.
He regretted that despite Boro’s revolutionary efforts, the Ijaw people were still grappling with similar challenges, decades later.
“We are still behind the expectations of our hero.
“Boro started his agitation in his early 20s, declared the Niger Delta Republic at 27 and died at 29,” Igarama said. NAN
