How Dikio is repositioning Niger Delta Amnesty Programme

The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) for the reformed Niger Delta militants has been undergoing reforms in the last one year, an official has said.

Mr Nneotabase Egbe, Special Adviser on Media to the Interim Administrator of PAP, rtd. Col. Milland Dikio told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday.

He said the reform is already yielding fruits.

He said the PAP under Dikio’s watch, discovered that the amnesty payroll was ”padded” with 400 duplicated names.

”The irregularities noticed a year ago led to the investigation and verification of the 30,000 accounts receiving the N65, 000 each monthly stipends.

”The scrutiny has so far revealed that some of the accounts were fake and fraudulently used to siphon funds meant for original ex-agitators.

“Immediately the investigation commenced, the amnesty office stopped the stipends of the accounts undergoing probe. It was the right thing to do.

“I can tell you that some of the accounts had been cleared and their owners will soon receive their stipends.

“But efforts are being intensified to discover the identities of persons receiving monies through identified fake accounts.”

Egbe said that the PAP under Dikio was determined to cleanse the system to ensure that amnesty’s resources were expended on real and verifiable ex-agitators and not on impostors.

”Investigations also revealed that some contractors of the PAP office were not delivering their jobs in accordance with their terms of contracts,” he said.

Egbe maintained that Dikio was determined to cleanse the system.