Ijaw Youths Defend PAP Boss Against ‘Baseless’ Smear Campaign
Feb 15, 2025
The Ijaw Youths Network (IYN) has raised concerns over what it described as a coordinated smear campaign against the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Dr Dennis Otuaro.
The group accused unnamed mischief makers and their sponsors of spreading false allegations of financial misconduct against the PAP boss in a bid to discredit him.
In a statement on Friday signed by its President and Secretary, Frank Ebikabo and Federal Ebiaridor, the IYN specifically called out a group, the “Niger Delta Liberators and Ex-Agitators Forum (NGLEF),” which recently alleged that Otuaro had engaged in fraudulent disbursement of funds and awarded contracts to inactive and unregistered companies.
The NGLEF, through one Odey Otunu, further claimed that the PAP administrator had approved N50 billion for a company that lacked legal standing in Nigeria.
The IYN stated that Otuaro was appointed in March 2024 and had embarked on payment of scholarships, stakeholder engagements, vocational training of delegates and others.
It, therefore, wondered where he got N50bn to pay a non-existent company as wildly claimed by the fictitious group, cautioning those behind the campaign of calumny against Otuaro to note that everybody cannot be the administrator of PAP at the same.
Dismissing these allegations as baseless, the IYN stated that its independent investigations revealed that the claims were fabricated to tarnish Otuaro’s reputation and disrupt the ongoing reforms in the PAP.
The group also linked the latest attack to the same individuals behind a protest against the PAP administrator at the United Nations headquarters in New York last December. It alleged that the smear campaign is being fueled by vested interests who are disturbed by Otuaro’s refusal to turn the PAP into a conduit for financial mismanagement.
Since assuming office in 2024, Otuaro has been credited with significant reforms, including the expansion of the PAP scholarship scheme and the introduction of new vocational training programmes designed to bridge the skills gap in the Niger Delta.
Describing the attack as pathetic, the IYN urged stakeholders to disregard the allegations and instead support the ongoing transformation of the PAP under Otuaro’s leadership.
