Twenty-six beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) on scholarship at the Igbinedion University, Okada in Edo State, have been awarded first class degrees in various disciplines.
Apart from the first class graduates, many other PAP-sponsored students also got distinctions in professional courses in medicine, nursing, medical laboratory, among others.
This was disclosed yesterday by the university’s vice chancellor, Prof Lawrence Ezemonye, when the administrator of PAP, Chief Dennis Otuaro, visited the institution and Benson Idahosa University, Benin, in Edo State to interact with the universities’ management and students on the scholarship of the PAP in the two institutions.
In a statement signed by the special assistant on media to the PAP administrator, Mr Igoniko Oduma, Otuaro expressed his commitment to sustaining the peace, security and development in the Niger Delta through the PAP in line with the vision of President Bola Tinubu.
He acknowledged that Igbinedion University was the first tertiary educational institution to accept the PAP scholarship students, saying that their graduates were part of the success story of the amnesty programme.
The PAP boss said that the amnesty programme office would deepen collaboration with its partners with a view to expanding the scope of operations.
He said, “The Presidential Amnesty Programme is crucial to fostering enduring peace in the Niger Delta. By implementing it efficiently and effectively, we can garner greater support for the Federal Government’s efforts to promote security and development in the Niger Delta.
“That is the vision of President Bola Tinubu which I seek to execute. He believes in sustaining the peace of the Niger Delta. With the president’s belief in the Presidential Amnesty Programme, we need to work harder to ensure that the confidence reposed in us is strengthened.”
Interacting with the PAP scholarship students of both universities, who highlighted some of their challenges, Otuaro assured them that the amnesty programme office would address the problems accordingly.
He urged them to shun social vices and take their studies seriously in order to be declared worthy in character and learning at their graduation.
The VC (Ezemonye), in his remarks, said that the amnesty programme was impacting greatly on the students, adding that “we have grown beyond entrepreneurial skills, we have grown character”.
He commended the PAP for meeting the obligations of the students under scholarship to put them in the vantage position to excel.
He promised a strengthened collaborative relation with the PAP in the area of offering opportunities to students in competitive courses like medicine and surgery, nursing, pharmacy, law and others especially with the recent increase in its quota of admission.
Also, the acting VC of Bishop Idahosa University, Prof Johnson Oyedeji, said the PAP administrator was an embodiment of encouragement and hope of better days ahead for the students as well as the existing partnership.
“We thank God for your life. What we are doing is for national security. We are motivated by a desire to sustain the peace for increased oil production,” he said.
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