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Tag: Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP)

  • Don’t abuse scholarship, non-beneficiaries warned

    Beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) scholarship have been warned against seeing the gesture as a right, but as a privilege to help them acquire tertiary education.

    The Amnesty Office said being from the Niger Delta is not an automatic qualification to enjoy the benefits of the programme, as its mandate mainly covered the management of 30,000 persons captured in the database.

    A statement on Monday by Murphy Ganagana, media aide to Coordinator of the Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, said the warning became necessary in view of an unruly behaviour exhibited last week by some non-beneficiaries of the Programme offered scholarship on compassionate grounds at the Gregory University in Uturu, Abia State.

    He was dismayed that rather than concentrating on their studies and show gratitude to Dokubo for providing them succour after they were fraudulently and illegally admitted into the university, the students, who are not bona fide beneficiaries of the scholarship, engaged in acts that breached the peace in the university.

    According to Ganagana, reports on the cause of the incident showed that the students were being mischievous by demanding to be granted same allowances meant for beneficiaries of the scholarship duly captured in the database, not minding the fact that they are not beneficiaries and were illegally sent to the institution through the back door.

    Read Also: CIAPS Commonwealth Scholarship begins

    The statement reads: “We wish to clarify that there are two categories of persons in the March 2018 deployment of delegates to universities onshore for educational programmes which were illegally carried out by a former worker of the Amnesty Office. This became a subject of investigation by relevant security and anti-graft agencies. The discovery of illegal deployments followed a verification ordered by Prof. Dokubo.

    “It is uncharitable and irresponsible for Niger Delta youths, who are not duly captured in the database of the Amnesty Programme but offered conditional scholarship on compassionate grounds, to demand full privileges accorded genuine beneficiaries of the programme. Being from the Niger Delta is not an automatic qualification to enjoy the benefits of the programme, as its mandate mainly covers the management of 30,000 persons captured in the database of beneficiaries…

     

     

     

     

     

  • Forum condemns attack on Dokubo

    A civil society group in the Niger Delta, The Foundation for Peace and Non-violence in Nigeria (TFPNVN), has condemned the attacks on Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Prof. Charles Dokubo, by some Ijaw indigenes.

    A statement by the group’s president, Onengiya Erokosima, said Prof. is an Ijaw son and any insult to him and the office he occupies is an insult to the entire Ijaw nation.

    Erokosima, who described Dokubo as a decent and honest son of Ijaw, lambasted the critics of the don, and accused them of having sinister motive.

    The statement reads: “The Foundation for Peace and Non-Violence in Nigeria condemns the spate of mudslinging against Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Prof. Charles Dokubo.

    “The Ijaw nation is being embarrassed by the attempts to soil the reputation of the Special Adviser by some Ijaw sons, either jostling for his position in the Presidency or having an interest to protect.

    “Prof. Dokubo is a decent man; he does not deserve such mudslinging. Nemesis will catch up with the perpetrators and peddlers of such lies against him.”

    Erokosima urged the naysayers to allow Dokubo focus on his responsibilities instead of distracting him with frivolities and unsubstantiated allegations.

  • Updated: Dokubo-must-go protest rocks Bayelsa

    Protesters on Wednesday asked the Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) Prof. Charles Dokubo to resign his appointment following the recent looting of the Boro Town Amnesty Training complex in Kaiama, Bayelsa State.

    The placard-carrying youths appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to force Dokubo to step aside to allow independent and unbiased investigations into the looting that lasted five days without any intervention by security agencies.

    The aggrieved youths insisted that PAP officials must be probed on allegations that they stage-managed the stealing of amnesty equipment to conceal alleged fraud and non-existing contracts in the amnesty office.

    The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘Charles Dokubo must be probed for the Kaiama amnesty facility looting’, ‘President Buhari, investigate Buhari for fraud, fake contracts’, ‘all amnesty directors must go’ and ‘there will be no safe haven for the corrupt’.

    Kingsley John, who led the protest under the auspices of Concerned Niger Deltans for Sustainable Development (CNDSD), wondered how looting occurred in a complex for five days without any effort by Dokubo to stop it.

    John, who led the protesters to the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Yenagoa, accused Dokubo of mocking Buhari’s anti-corruption war.

    He said: “The looting of the facility lasted for five days with no police or Military Personnel present to stop the hoodlums.

    “On February 14, 2019, Prof. Dokubo drove along the East-West Road and saw the looting of the facility.

    “Sources said stakeholders who saw him, pleaded with him to call for security, instead, Dokubo drove away and went to Benin on February 14, 2019.

    “Dokubo later called Esther Boro, to go and commission the facility on his behalf.

    Read Also: Amnesty: Buhari won’t forsake Niger Delta – Dokubo

    “While the looting was going on at one end, Madam Esther and a few elders she gathered were commissioning the facility at another end in the same complex all on February 14, 2019.

    “The Head of the Training Center reported the looting to the Police in Bayelsa state February 14, 2019, three days after the looting of the N60bn Vocational Training.

    “After the Head of the Boro-Town Vocational Training Center reported the matter to the police in Bayelsa state, Prof. Dokubo became very angry at him for reporting the matter to the police.

    “Dokubo then instructed him to immediately withdraw his statement and the police report that had already been filed with the police in Bayelsa state.

    “On February 15, 2019, the head of the centre wrote to the police in Bayelsa state to withdraw his statement and the report that he had already filed with the police.

    “Dokubo waited for almost one month after the looting before setting up a committee to investigate the looting. However, the people of Kaiama and Niger Deltans know the truth”.

    But Ganagana faulted all the allegations saying they were baseless and clarifying that immediately the incident happened Dokubo took actions to stop it.

    “It is not true that nothing was done. There was military presence and even the police were drafted to the place immediately the incident started.

    “The invaders were too many that they overwhelmed the security,” he said.

    Ganagana explained there was security deployment even before the incident because the centre was being prepared for the inauguration of the items.

    He said besides the conventional security, the amnesty office maintained private guards at the centre insisting that security was never problem of the vocational facility.

    He said the office took further action to report the incident to the police adding that contrary to claims that the matter was withdrawn, the police were still investigating the reason behind it.

    He said Dokubo’s desire to get to the root of the matter compelled him to set up a high-powered investigative panel to unravel the circumstances behind the looting.

    “Prof. Dokubo will not succumb to the antics of blackmailers. He will remain focused in the discharge of his duties,” he said.

  • Looter’s amnesty

    •It is welcome that guilty officials have been identified to forfeit their takings

    Just like the previous initiatives set up to ameliorate the deplorable conditions of the Niger Delta, the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) set up by the Umaru Yar’Adua administration in 2009 has, regrettably, also been dogged by corruption. The latest of this has resulted in a court order, on March 1, 2019, to 17 former officials of the Presidential Amnesty Programme Office to forfeit about N732.85million stolen from the office to the Federal Government.

    Justice James Tsoho of the Federal High Court in Abuja had on November 16, last year, granted an interim forfeiture order, following the ex-parte application filed by the counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He also ordered the commission to advertise the order in the newspapers for any interested party to show cause within 14 days on why the money should not be forfeited to the government.

    The 17 former PAP officials are General Paul Tarela Boroh (rtd), Hanafi Musa Moriki, Allotey Asari Edem, Joshua Ebiemeyefa, D. Wokoma, Bernard Ochoche and Cecilia Adebisi. Others are: Omofuma Faith, Olusegun Opeyemi Okungbure, Beggi Erepatei, Matti Abdul, Stella Nnamatti, Theresa Okoro, Chika Nsirim, Omonyemen Osunbor, Musa Odiringa, and Ode Martins Olajide. Gen Boroh, a former coordinator of the programme is to forfeit about N124million.

    We commend the EFCC for its diligent investigations which unearthed the  various sums of N124,000,000; N320,000,000; N68,768,916; N1,900,000; N5,125,000; N3,000,000; N28,595,755; N6,137,000; N40,000,000; N46,800,000; N16,315,000; N2,547,800; N3,900,000; N8,234,650; N6,800,000; N2,651,000, and N1,970,750 traced to the respondents, respectively, leading to the judge granting the order for final forfeiture of the money.

    President Yar’Adua instituted the programme in response to the clamour by the people in the region for amnesty for militants in the region. The militants had literally held the country by the jugular when, through pipeline bombings and other activities, they succeeded in reducing the country’s crude oil production from over two million barrels per day to less than 700,000 barrels. The programme succeeded in calming frayed nerves, as the amnesty office worked to reintegrate the fighters into society, placing and sponsoring many of them in vocational and higher education courses in Nigeria and overseas. Oil production bounced back and the country has been able to realise more money from crude export, except for occasions when prices plummeted in the international oil market.

    One would have expected that people who are fortunate to find themselves directing the affairs of such a vital agency would see it as a rare privilege and a call to duty, and thus be patriotic enough to appreciate its essence and the centrality of its operations to the country’s wellbeing by running it transparently and making honesty their watchword. It is a matter for regret that this has not been so, as we have seen in the instant case which has ended in the adoption of non-conviction based forfeiture proceedings.

    It is also regrettable that similar initiatives instituted in the region to ameliorate the sufferings of the people there recorded similar mindboggling cases of corruption. We refer to the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) established by the Ibrahim Babangida government in 1992 and even its successor, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) established in 1999.

    We would have loved a situation where the culprits of such heinous crime are handed jail terms to serve as a deterrent to others. But then, we also understand the consequences on the state’s coffers, especially when those involved are ready to return the amounts outstanding against their names to the government. We can only hope that the process of the plea bargain was thorough and transparent and that the country was not shortchanged.

    All said, we urge the governments involved in the appointment of people to agencies such as the amnesty office to be thorough in their background checks on the prospective appointees. They must, of necessity, be people of proven integrity. That is the only way the people in the region can have full value for whatever investments the government makes in their interest.

  • Amnesty programme empowers Niger Delta communities

    Succour has come the way of residents of impacted communities during the Niger Delta crises.

    The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) moved a step from its core mandate with the distribution of various items as starter packs to the people as part of its empowerment programme.

    The current programme, which involved thousands of recipients drawn from various communities in Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Cross Rivers, Imo, Ondo, Akwa Ibom and Abia states, started at Wellington Hotel in Warri, Delta State, last Friday.

    About 177 persons profiled from various communities for each of the 20 distribution centres across states in the Niger Delta region received items for various trade areas.

    These included welding equipment, tailoring, catering, deep freezers and generators of different sizes.

    The Special Adviser (SA) to the President on Niger Delta and PAP Coordinator, Prof. Charles Dokubo, officially kick-started the empowerment programme yesterday at Abonnema in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.

    The presidential aide noted that the gesture was a show of President Muhammadu Buhari’s love for residents of the oil-rich region.

    “Having served in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in the course of his military career, President Buhari is conversant with the unpleasant situation of the Niger Delta people and he is committed to turning around the narrative. President Buhari loves you and will ensure that the Niger Delta is stabilised and gets its right place in the country, especially in terms of infrastructural development.

    “The fact that he sustained the Amnesty Programme despite intense pressure from some quarters is an evidence of his love for the Niger Delta people. I urge you to turn out en mass in the forthcoming elections to cast your ballot and return him for a second term to enable him do more for our people,” Dokubo said.

    The presidential aide warned recipients of the various items against selling what they got but to make judicious use of them to eke out a living.

    He said: “This is a special empowerment for people who are not among the 30,000 beneficiaries captured in the Presidential Amnesty Programme; it is meant for people in crisis-impacted communities in the Niger Delta. It is to demonstrate that the Amnesty Programme is for all the people of Niger Delta, and we care for you.”

    As of yesterday, residents in various communities in Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa states had benefitted from the distribution which held in Warri, Opukiri, Ogwashukwu, Abonnema, Degema and Buguma.

    The programme continues this week at other centres, including Gelegele and Auchi in Edo State; Yakkur/Calabar South, Cross River State; Eket/Ikot-Ikpene, Akwa Ibom State and Ohaji Egbema/Owerri in Imo State.

    Others are: Ilaje/Okitikpupa, in Ondo State as well as Ukwa East/West and Umuahia North/South in Abai State.

    On behalf of recipients of the items at Warri distribution centre, community leader at Ogbeinbin in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, Chief Solomon Ogumogu, hailed Prof. Dokubo the initiative.

    He said: “We are very happy. We are happy for what is happening today and what we are seeing physically right here. Since the beginning of the Amnesty Programme in 2009, we have never experienced anything like this before.

    “Why I am saying this is that the Amnesty Programme was targeted at those involved in the armed struggle, the people that carried arms, fighting for their freedom. But majority of communities in the Niger Delta region had been neglected.

    “No coordinator of Amnesty Programme had ever remembered people in the Niger Delta who didn’t carry arms. But today, we are thanking Prof. Charles Dokubo for remembering communities affected while militancy lasted. By giving us these items today, we are so happy and we also want to thank President Buhari for appointing a visionary leader like Prof. Charles Dokubo.”

    At Degema in Rivers State, the traditional ruler of the kingdom, King Reuben Zechariah Amos, Peika VII, the Onu-Onyan Ekein of Udemaka, urged the Federal Government to sustain and adequately fund the Amnesty Programme for effective transformation of the Niger Delta region.

    He said Dokubo’s appointment as Coordinator of the programme was a divine intervention to uplift the region.

    He lauded his visionary leadership and fresh initiatives, including the inauguration of the Basic Skills Oil and Gas Vocational Training Centre at Agadagba-Obon, Ondo State, and the Vocational Training Centre at Kaiama, which are scheduled to be launched on February 14.

  • Ex-militants cry out over alleged diversion of N30m stipends 

    Ex- militants enrolled into the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) under the Asaraba Pillars Camp (ASPC) Epebu community have lamented an alleged diversion of their monthly stipends valued at about N30m.

    Investigations Wednesday revealed that Mr. Munalayefa Gibson, who leads the camp, is now a member of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly representing Ogbia Constituency II.

    It was also gathered that the ex-militants had not received their stipends since September 2017 and all efforts to get the money proved abortive.

    The victims of nonpayment were said to have started raising the alarm over their predicament in December 2017 when one of the camp members, Nicholas Nathaniel, wrote to the then amnesty Coordinator, Paul Boroh, via an email.

    Read Also:Ex-militants urge Fed Govt to settle unpaid allowances

    Nathaniel in the document dated December 19, told the Presidential Adviser that they had not been paid for three months and their camp leader, Munalayefa blamed it on the opening of new accounts and the amnesty office.

    But he said that they felt that the lawmaker lied to them following a discovery that a few members from the camp still received their stipends.

    “The majority of the youths involved are angry and may soon engage in violent actions that will affect societal peace and tranquility if nothing is done”, he said.

    However, Boroh’s response dated December 20 insisting that all members of the camp had been paid was said to have led to the suspicion that their money had been diverted by their camp leader.

    It was also found that the ex-militants engaged the services of a legal firm, Stanley Damabide and Partners to write a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in January 26th accusing Munalayefa of fraud.

    The legal firm in the petition requested the EFCC to investigate the matter with a view to prosecuting the lawmaker and his cohorts.

    The petition specifically accused the lawmaker of working in connivance with some unnamed officials in the amnesty office to defraud members of the camp.

    Investigations further revealed that after months of fruitless wait on the

    EFCC to carry out due diligence on the matter, the ex-militants in June 13, 2018 wrote a fresh petition to the Chairman, House Committee on Public Petitions in the National Assembly.

    In the petition written by a legal firm, JUS Scenario and signed by Ndeze Anthony, the ex-militants lamented that nonpayment of their stipends brought untold hardship to them and their families.

    They said despite confirmations that the money had been paid, no explanations were given why they had not received their stipends.

    The ex-agitators appealed to the committee chairman to invite all the parties including Munalayefa to “unravel this unacceptable perceived illegality and ensure the payment of the withheld stipends”.

    In another petition to the Commissioner of Police, Bayelsa State, dated June 13, the ex-militants complained that despite all their complaints, all the parties involved in the payment of their stipends had done nothing to address the perceived injustice.

    Still in a fresh complaint to the incumbent Coordinator, Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokuboh, the legal firm, JUS Scenario, said Munalayefa had yet to give reasons why the stipends had not been paid to the ex-militants.

    “Our clients are further worried and uncomfortable at the response of Skye Bank each time they complain to its management of non-receipt of their monthly stipend that their accounts have been blocked”, the law firm said in the petition.

    The firm in the document dated May 14 and signed by Ndeze Anthony asked the amnesty office to clarify the matter to avert resort to self-help.

    Also writing under the auspices of Asaraba Progressive Foundation (APD), the ex-militants urged the Bayelsa Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, to wade into the matter and resolve the crisis.

    The ex-agitators in the petition date July 26 and signed by Nathaniel, Gbalabho Kuroekegha and Mark Abaiaguo, demand immediate payment of their stipends.

    They said: “This unfortunate incident of diversion and withholding about 11 months amnesty stipends kept the deprived aggrieved youths upset as it has brought about untold hardship in them and their families.

    “Their children are dying and landlord are chasing these youths out of their houses as they cannot afford to for their bills. The stipend has been their source of survival and lack of payment is creating fresh agitation.

    “For the records, GIbson Munalayefa was the camp leader until he became a member of House of Assembly. But he has always issued threats rather than pay attention to the plights of camp members”.

    The ex-agitators further told the governor: “We are law-abiding and willing to cooperate with all legal and constitutional process to attain justice in Asaraba Pillars Camp. We will not succumb to the usual threats.

    “But your office should be informed that if anything happens to Nicholas Nathaniel and the other persons, who are legitimately fighting for their rights, Munalayefa and others should be held responsible”.

    When contacted, Munalayefa described all the allegations against him as false insisting that the petitioners were acting without facts.

    He said: “These are false allegations without facts. Besides, l am not responsible for payments of amnesty salaries but the office in Abuja if they are genuine beneficiaries except they are ghosts.

    “They are looking for means to further destroy my image because of somebody’s political ambition. The court will justify the truth by God’s grace. I am not the one that usually pay amnesty salaries. Everybody knows is political and I will sue anybody involved”.

  • Amnesty programme to train 2,000 N/Delta ex-agitators – Boroh

    Amnesty programme to train 2,000 N/Delta ex-agitators – Boroh

    The Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme ( PAP ), Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh (Rtd) says that the programme will train 2,000 ex-militants in various trades to ensure sustained development in Niger-Delta region.

    Boroh, who is also the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, made the disclosure in an interview on Monday in Abuja.

    “We plan to train 2,000 ex-agitators in addition to the ones we have empowered before, to ensure continuous development of the Niger-Delta region.

    “I believe that when these people are adequately trained and well empowered, the Niger Delta region will become a good place for all to live.

    “The trainees will help boost economic activities of the region, because when the youths do not have a sustainable economic path, our families and communities suffer,” he said.

    He said that the proposed training would be in various fields to enable the beneficiaries acquire different skills, in line with their areas of interest.

    Boroh added that allowing them get trained in their areas of interest, would bring about passion for the skill, and ensure sustenance and ability to judiciously utilize the skills acquired.

    The coordinator said the beneficiaries would be trained in agriculture, restaurant and bar, timber saw and milling, baking, interior decoration, boat construction, film making, communication skills and fine arts.

    He explained that some of the trainees would prefer to go into artistic skill that would make them create something from nothing, something beautiful from something ugly.

    According to Boroh, PAP is looking at manipulative skills, in which a person learns to handle objects with precision, speed and control.

    “We can say that art is a skill obtained through practice. These largely involve physical activities with the use of hand and body coordination to execute a task,” he explained.

    The presidential aide said that the ex-agitators would also be schooled in communication and literacy, decision making, occupational requirements, problem solving, time management and planning skills.

    “These skills will help them cope easily with the daily challenges of life in terms of making decisions and expressing themselves.

    “The empowerment will facilitate good leadership and entrepreneurship, to attaining meaningful development and make the beneficiaries to be financially independent.

    “The training is part of the ongoing re-integration programme of PAP,’’ he said.

    We recall that the Amnesty Programme had in the past trained and empowered over 6,000 ex- agitators in their choice areas of businesses.

    NAN

  • Maritime University: 304 ex-agitators apply for jobs – Boroh

    Maritime University: 304 ex-agitators apply for jobs – Boroh

    The Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme ( PAP ), Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh, said on Thursday that 304 amnesty beneficiaries had applied for job at the Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State.

    Boroh, who is also the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Matters, disclosed this in an interview in Abuja.

    The Coordinator said the University had commenced operations and placed advertisements for those interested in working with the institution as academic staff.

    He said that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved increase in the of take-off grant for the University from the earlier  N2 billion announced to N5 billion.

    He said the grant had already been included in the 2018 budget, under the Federal Ministry of Education allocation, presented to the National Assembly.

    Boroh described the recent upward review of the earlier budgetary allocation from N2 billion to 5 billion in the 2018 budget for the new university, as a show of commitment on the part of the President towards sustainable peace, stability and development in the region.

    He assured that the University would  create massive employment opportunities for youths in the region, adding that so many youths have been trained in different disciplines and vocations.

    Many of them were trained in marine engineering, maritime studies, seamanship, shipping, marine transport related studies, diving, underwater welding, automobile engineering, aviation, tourism and hospitality, agriculture, particularly in aquaculture.

    The Special Adviser said the youths can fill the manpower gap in the maritime sector, using the maritime university as the channel.

    Boroh added that the maritime university would continue to provide the platform for many other economic activities and development that would shape the geo-political and socio-economic dynamics in the region.

    He said the University is now hiring professors, readers, senior lecturers, lecturers, assistant lecturers and graduate assistants to teach in the faculties of Science, Maritime Transportation, Maritime Engineering & Technology, Maritime Environmental Management and General Studies.

    “It is important to see unemployed graduates thinking about how to take control of their career development on a daily basis by developing  their skills, values and interests as this will be helpful to them throughout their working life,”.

    The Coordinator , however, urged youths in the region not to give up on their dreams.

    “With high competition for graduate jobs in Nigeria , it’s easy to feel discouraged when looking for a job.

    “You don’t have to give up on your dream job,”  he said.

    He lauded the President for his commitment to the smooth take-off of the University and release of grant.

    He, however, assured that the federal government would sustained the establishment for good.

    The Presidential aide stressed the importance of giving support to the planned development of this administration for the ultimate purpose of improving the wellbeing of Nigerians.

    “Nigerians should know that the president is human and needs the sincere prayers of all well-meaning Nigerians to move the nation forward,” he said.

    NAN

  • Ex-militant leaders, Boroh strike peace deal  

    Ex-militant leaders, Boroh strike peace deal  

    Ex-militant leaders have vowed to work with the Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Gen. Paul Boroh (retd), to sustain the existing peace in the Niger Delta region.

    The leaders under the auspices of the Leadership Peace and Cultural Development Initiative (LPCDI), were said to have struck a peace deal when they visited Boroh at the Amnesty Office in Abuja.

    The group in a statement in Yenagoa by its Bayelsa State Chairman, Mr. Bull Ifiemi and Public Relations Officer (PRO), Godgift Ayabowe, said during their visit of the amnesty office, they commended Boroh’s managerial skills and his leadership of PAP.

    The ex-militant leaders declared total support for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration and thanked him for entrusting the affairs of the amnesty programme on Boroh.

    “We declared our total support for Boroh because of his effective and efficient management of the amnesty programme. We also pledged to support the President and the amnesty office to sustain the peace in the Niger Delta region”, the ex-militants said.

    They particularly commended Buhari and Boroh for various empowerment and agricultural development programmes in the region and for the release of their monthly stipends.

    They, however, pleaded with the Presidency to consider giving pipeline surveillance contracts to the youths in the region following their knowledge of Niger Delta terrains.

    The ex-militant leaders said the contracts should not be given to persons, who had done little or nothing to improve the development of the region.

    “We also appeal to the Presidency to allow the youths in oil-producing communities to become stakeholders in the proposed establishment of modular refineries. These youths will help to prevent any grievances that may occur in the region.

    “We are sure that if youths are given the opportunity to be stakeholders in the modular refineries and the surveillance contracts, no youth will be involved in any form of restiveness”, they said.

    The ex-militants regretted that in the past,  the jobs were given to greedy persons, who selfishly enriched themselves at the detriment of the youths.

    They advised that the surveillance contracts in the region should be channeled through the amnesty office following Boroh’s knowledge of leaders and youths on ground in the region.

    According to them Boroh would carry everybody along to ensure adequate execution of the contracts.

    “We further plead with the Presidency to prevail on federal agencies and parastatals especially the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Ministry of Niger Delta to involve the youths in their programmes and projects.

    “We also urge the presidency to look into the stipends of the leaders. The leaders receive the same N65,000 monthly stipends as their boys. This is too small because leaders still take care of the responsibilities and welfare of their boys”, they said.

    Read Also: Green Shirts of the Niger Delta

  • PAP trains 14,366 ex-agitators, more to graduate before December. – Boroh

    PAP trains 14,366 ex-agitators, more to graduate before December. – Boroh

    The Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh has said that about 14,366 ex-agitators had been trained in the programme.

    Boroh made this disclosure when he featured at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Sunday.

    He explained that their capacities had also been developed in the areas of agriculture, automobile engineering, aviation sector and then we are also looking at the sports sector.

    “As we speak we have trained well over 5,000 persons in the area of education capacity development and we have trained well over 22,000 others in the area of skills acquisitions and entrepreneurship development.”

    He added that since the inception of the programme, it had granted amnesty to 30,000 ex-agitators of the Niger Delta region as well as pronouncement of their engagement to capacity development.

    Boroh said that between now and Dec. 17, its organisation would continue to graduate more ex-agitators, who have benefited from the scheme.

    According to the Coordinator, the Amnesty education programme is winding down and there is need to graduate more of the beneficiaries.

    He said the role of education in a national development cannot be over emphasized.

    He added that education was a pivotal investment for human and economic development and also influenced by the environment within which it exists.

    Boroh said that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is aware of the need of today’s youth to have a specific set of skills to survive in this competitive world to progress.

    The Presidential aide said that the beneficiaries who are now graduates were aware of the socio-economic scenario of the nation and can help in moving the region and the nation forward.

    According to him, the beneficiaries can now contribute towards nation-building which requires a democratic society that allows the contribution of all, rich or poor.

    “From now till December 17 you will be hearing of graduations because we are winding down and positively for that matter as well as empowerment.

    “We are using government institutions, we think the resources we spent in this programme will be better utilised within the country.

    “That is why we are using government owned institutions instead of institutions abroad, this is our focus.

    “Right now we have trained about 14,366 ex-agitators in the programme and their capacities have also been developed in the areas of agriculture, automobile engineering, aviation sector and then we are also looking at the sports sector,‘’ he said.

    He said other areas included skill acquisitions, entrepreneurship and educational development.