Activist urges revival of looted PAP vocational centre

A human and environmental rights activist, Alagoa Morris, has called on the Presidential Amnesty Programme to revisit the PAP Vocational Centre at Boro Town, Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

The PAP training centre was looted and vandalised in 2019, and starter packs for graduates of the amnesty programmes and training equipment were stolen by youth leaders, community folks and security operatives among others.

The facility has since been abandoned and overgrown with weeds, but Morris, who is also the Deputy Executive Director of the Environmental Defenders Network, said it should not be allowed to go to waste, especially as huge sums of money had been committed to its development.

Morris, who made the call on Monday when a youth group, Coalition of Clan Vice Chairmen, IYC, visited him in his office in Yenagoa, said, “You don’t abandon your car when it is bad, you take it to the mechanic to fix it.”

He added, “Apart from Obubra, where PAP did training for former arm-bearing youths, I don’t know any other place where the Presidential Amnesty Programme has such a facility built other than the one here in Boro Town well equipped with state-of-the-art facilities.

“And in 2019 that facility was looted, vandalised, raped by Niger Delta youths. Unfortunately, it happened; a lot of names were mentioned, and even former youth leaders came from Delta State to partake in the looting, including security agents.

“I was there about a week ago to look at the facility. It is overgrown with weeds and shrubs, and the fence has several holes through which people pass to do further looting.

“I want to use this very rare opportunity to appeal to the amnesty boss to rethink the original intention of that facility at Boro Town and ensure that the resources expended do not go in vain.

“If nothing is done, they will begin to remove the roof. Right now, the roofs are all there green and intact. Some of the windows have been removed.”

Morris also frowned at the pull-him-down syndrome in the Niger Delta region by petitioners and appealed to all stakeholders to give the PAP Administrator, Dennis Otuaro, and the Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission, Samuel Ogbuku, to work.

Earlier, the youth coalition, led by Bestman Samuel Ivinbeke, said they were there to inform Morris that they had withdrawn from the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protest, as it has been hijacked by hoodlums who were bent on the destruction of public infrastructure.

Ivinbeke disclosed that they decided to withdraw from the protest on appeals by the PAP Administrator, Otuaro, Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo and leader, South Wing MEND, Selky Kile Torughedi.

He said, “We as youth groups in the Niger Delta region aim to advocate for peace and development in the region. We will no longer continue to be part of this planned protest by selfish politicians and people who do not mean well for the good people of the Niger Delta region.”