Following a recent claim by the immediate past interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd) that 1652 beneficiaries were awarded scholarships, an inside source in the Presidential Amnesty Office has revealed that out of 1,717, slots less than10% of registered ex-agitators made the list.
The source who preferred to remain anonymous revealed that children and wards of political powerbrokers and other classes of influential persons formed the bulk of those who enjoyed the privilege.
He added that the criteria for selection and eventual award of scholarships did not follow any laid down procedure.
He said; “A scholarship programme of this kind is designed and meant for the indigents only. None of the 1,717 persons awarded scholarships and subsequently deployed to schools underwent any form of pre-deployment orientation of physical screening beyond the digital selection process conducted via the PAP web portal. Deployed persons were not made to sign a student sponsorship charter or code of conduct.
“The repercussion of this omission has resulted in the PAP having to deal with a plethora of cases of student indiscipline and character deficit. As a result of the oversubscribed scholarship program, the debt liability required to offset all expenses associated with the more than 3,000 sponsored persons in schools (onshore and offshore) for just October-December 2022 is N5,502633,219.21
“The Presidential Amnesty Programme as an interventionist vehicle was designed to cater to a specific number of registered and duly documented beneficiaries i.e., ex-agitators.
“After studying the various reports submitted by core departments and units, the following is worthy to note: A debt liability of N49,995,480,634.49, representing monies for work done was outstanding. This quoted figure is the debt for the Reintegration Department only.
The reintegration department of the PAP is the core driver of the PAP operations and directly oversees all matters associated with the management of Programme beneficiaries. The monthly subvention to the PAP stands at N5.4B.
