Ndiomu Lauds Buhari Over Funding Of Amnesty Programme

The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) Major General Barry Ndiomu, has commended

President Muhammadu Buhari over what the proper funding of the amnesty programme and ongoing development in the region.

Ndiomu who stated this in Abuja on Thursday during a chat with newsmen

said the President’s gesture has enable Amnesty to pay stipends promptly.

He also expressed confidence that the livelihoods of ex-agitators in the Niger Delta Region will be improved in no distant time, saying less than one percent of beneficiaries of the Programme are gainfully employed.

“Interestingly, when we looked at the data we have for even the ex-agitators and members of impacted communities that have benefited from either the scholarship scheme or the vocational training programmes, we realise that less than 1% are gainfully employed,” he said

Speaking on the resolved to pay fees for students of Baze University, Abuja under the Amnesty programme, he said one of the reasons was necessary to suspend the scholarship programme was because of the costs of Presidential Amnesty Programme.

“For example, we now have a total of well over 3,000 individuals to whom scholarships have been awarded.

If you looked at the bill, tuition fees is well over N7 billion for the section. We are talking about onshore 3,000 plus, offshore, there’s no government institution. There was need to take a second look at it and that was why we had that problem with Baze University because it was just impossible to pay the tuition across these institutions.

“These were not government-owned universities; we are talking about private universities. Millions of Naira on individual students, I don’t want to put blame on anyone but that was without any doubt, reckless.

“There was need to take a second look at it which we are doing and we are not going to suspend the scholarships which have already been awarded because it was not the fault of these children to be awarded these scholarships, we have to work out a way of looking for the funds to upset these huge bills that we are confronted with.

“That was why it possible to discuss with Baze University to do a certain percentage payment, so that later on this year, we will be able to upset the balance of the tuition fees. We hope to do that with all other institutions before we can begin to talk about re-awarding scholarships in a more rational and reasonable manner consistent with the budget of the amnesty programme.”

The PAP boss reiterated that his engagements with heads of government agencies would soon begin to yield positive results, adding that as a follow-up to his meeting with Nigeria’s Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan, he is making contacts with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to push further for the employment of 350 Niger Deltans across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as directed by the Presidency in 2017.

The General noted that upon assumption of office in September 2022, there was a directive to suspend contract awards due to paucity of funds. This, he said, affected the awards of scholarship, as the process had to be halted.

“We are not going to suspend the scholarships that has already been awarded because it is not the fault of these children to be awarded the scholarships. We had to work out a way of looking for the funds to offset these huge bills that will now we are confronted with,” he added.

He said part of the reasons why the number of ex-agitators under the Programme kept swelling, was because a number of them who earlier did not agree to come out of the creeks because of lack of trust for the Federal Government, later turned themselves.