Tag: Akpodoro

Mayor of Urhoboland in Delta State, Dr. Eshanekpe Israel (Akpodoro) has lauded United States and President Bola Tinubu’s administration for the coordinated attack on Christmas Day on ISIS elements in Northwest.

In a statement in Ughelli, the mayor said Nigerians are grateful for the American assistance, and called for more of such actions to push back the criminal elements.

The mayor lauded Federal Government’s diplomatic cooperation, acknowledging that without its political will, U.S. wouldn’t have succeeded. But he stressed that sponsors of the terrorists should also be targeted in subsequent actions towards freeing the country from foreign criminals.

He warned that whoever is against the coordinated actions of the military should be considered an enemy combatant, and should be dealt with.

The mayor called on the Federal Government to investigate and bring to book leaders who negate the campaign to free the country from terrorists.

Akpodoro noted, however, that the change effected in the security architecture has added impetus to the fight against insecurity. Some notable personalities, he said, leverage the insecurity to incite violence, a development he said should not be condoned by the Federal Government. He condemned a notable cleric who frowned at the security pact with the U.S., advising the Federal Government to engage Turkey and others instead.

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“How can anyone condemn the current efforts at making the citizens free from attacks from bandits and terrorists?

“I call on Nigeria to sustain its support for the U.S. to get rid of the recalcitrants who have chosen to make peace impossible…’’

“We have seen the zeal and the political will to end insurgency and whoever chooses to be an impartial partner against terror in the country should be welcome to join the fight to free Nigerians from blood letting. This war should be total irrespective of ethnicity or religion because Nigerians must be freed from the monsters against peace in our land. Enough is enough.”

The former  militant leader hailed National Security Adviser to the President, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, for     his dogged approach to entrench peace, stressing that the hotbeds of terrorism in the Sahel must be dealt more morbid blows.

“As a former ex-militant leader, I know as well as the FG that terrorism doesnt know religion and tribe, but a calculated efforts will brings terrorists to their knees. There should not be a middle ground ,the war must be total. We have implicit confidence in the Minister of Defence, Lt. General Christopher Musa and the expectations of Nigerians for the end of terrorism are high and we hope with him in the saddle Nigerian will be free soon.

“THESE GUYS ARE RETIRED GENERALS: Lakurawa Terrorist Group Is Headquartered In Sokoto State. The federal government of Nigeria has taken responsibility for providing American forces the intelligence with which they were able to successfully bomb Lakurawa Terrorists in Sokoto state.

Nevertheless, Akpodoro wondered that “the current Sultan of Sokoto caliphate is a retired Brigadier General in Nigeria the Army while Dr. Ahmad Abubakar Mahmud Gumi was a retired Lieutenant Connel in Nigeria Army. Yet, they claim that they do not have the intelligence about the operations of these terrorist organisations within their domain.

Nigeria is largely a country of “the more you look, the less you see.

“But, when more reasonable men and women point accusing fingers towards these individuals as promoters of terrorism in Nigeria, their thoughts are not out of place – now we know.

“It was in this same Sokoto that a young Christian girl was gruesomely murdered and burnt to ashes, on the account of blasphemy. The perpetrators of this barbaric act were never brought to justice, and everyone, including government, moved on as if nothing happened.

“Tragically, all these abnormalities happen daily in Nigeria because people have normalised such abnormalities to become a norm.” Dr. Akpodoro stated.

Mayor of Urhoboland, Eshanakpe Israel a.k.a Akpodoro, has described the call by Association of Contractors/Vendors and Stakeholders of Presidential Amnesty Programme, on President Bola Tinubu to probe the five billion naira monthly allocation to the agency as mischievious.

It noted its an attempt to blackmail the Administrator of the programme, Dr. Dennis Otuaro, saying Otùaro’s sin against the association is that he is resisting attempts by the contractors and vendors to armtwist him.

Akpodoro, a stakeholder in Amnesty, said contrary to the “lies of the association to whip  up fears of crisis in the region,” there’s peace in Niger Delta.

He said since inception of Otuaro,  ‘‘former militants are paid as at when due, stakeholders carried along in activities of the programme’’, wondering where the “Success Ebiere-led association of fear mongers saw crisis in the region.”

According to him, most persons, who claim to be contractors are those who sponsor protests against the programme’s managers in the past and present.

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“Ask them to show proof of a single contract awarded them and executed by their firms, you will find out their claims are false. What they do is to run to the press, issue threats, and blackmail their targets for pecuniary benefits”, he said.

Contractors, the Urhobo-born leader said, ‘‘are bane of Amnesty and for a long time they have backpedalled human and material development in the region by holding the programme hostage and fleecing it to its bone marrow.”

Akpodoro called on Otuaro to disregard such ‘self-serving forces of discord’ and never be intimidated by those who bully  regional agencies established to cater for the region, saying the moment their interests are not met, they go on a “blackmailing spree.’’

The leadership of that group should tell Nigerians what contracts they executed to warrant the media attack launched against the office of the Amnesty coordinator. “They claimed to have been owed for two years. Why didn’t they cry out before the appointment of  Otuaro? Akpodoro noted.

“Their outburst is pregnant with mischief. Nobody can destabilise Niger Delta under any guise and not even under the administration that’s doing everything to ensure a better and stronger Nigeria. If they are legitimate contractors, they should follow due process to request their payment and not media noise. Tying their so-called indebtedness to imaginary looming dangers in the region is an insult to commonsense and must be condemned,” he said.

Akpodoro called on President Tinubu to ignore such calls as a ‘‘vicious campaign of calumny against the Federal Government and its agencies.

“A call by such unknown group should be disregarded by the Presdient and secuirty searchlight beamed on the characters behind such reckless call capable of fuelling division among the peaceful people of the region’’, he said.