CHINEDU WOSU, YENAGOA
The International Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, IITH, Bayelsa State, has described the attacks on the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh (retd.), on the award of contracts as ”misplaced and unwarranted”.
The IITH, one of the partners and major players in the Amnesty project, berated a group, Niger Deltans for Accountability and Good Governance, NDAGG, for claiming that Boroh had not been following due process and competitive bidding process in contract awards.
The Rector, IITH, Mr. Timi Johnson, who spoke in Yenagoa, the state capital, on Wednesday, said that Boroh, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, should be commended for his strict observance of due process in the award of contracts or engagement of service vendors.
, ”We want to say that the allegation by NDAGG that Boroh is awarding contracts or engaging services without following due process is immoral, unfounded, unwarranted and misplaced,” .Johnson said
”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.
The Rector said, ”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.”
Therefore, the IITH boss noted that the fifth columnists’ plot to protest against Boroh could be likened to ”mere traducers that fed fat in the past through award of phony contracts and diversion of funds” which Boroh’s leadership had stamped out.
Johnson, who believes that the firmness of Boroh has started to pay off, said the Amnesty boss had successfully checked crass opportunism, rot, indiscipline and inexorable mess that characterized 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.
Hear him,”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.”
He also called on stakeholders to support Boroh in his efforts to re position the Niger Delta and set it on the path of recovery, peace and development.
