Agency Denies Owing 5,000 Itsekiri Graduates’ Fees

Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has denied owing the school fees of 5,000 students of Itsekiri extraction at Novena University, Ogume, Delta State.

In a statement released yesterday, the agency insisted that it does not owe students’ fees in Novena or any institution within or outside the country.

It reacted to claims by the so-called Office of the Sole Representative of His Royal Majesty Ogiame Atuwatse III, the Olu of Warri, to NNPLC, that the Amnesty Programme is “indebted” to Novena University concerning “all Itsekiri students” who graduated from the institution purportedly under the programme’s scholarship scheme.

The monarch’s agent, Collins Oritsetimeyin Oedema, made the claim in a statement issued by Olu’s palace announcing an intervention to settle the “outstanding tuition and clearance fees” of all the affected Itsekiri graduates in the university.

But PAP said Novena University and the Amnesty Office did not record the award of scholarships to the institution’s 5,000 Itsekiri students.

PAP said the report of an inquiry into the issue by previous heads of the agency revealed that the 5,000 Itsekiri indigenes were sent to the management of Novena University by the Itsekiri National Youth Council (INYC) in 2017 without the involvement of the agency.

It added that it was not conceivable for the PAP to take responsibility for the students who were not deployed by the agency.