By Joshua Williams
National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd.) has incurred the wrath of Niger Delta groups for his comment that over N712 billion had been “wasted” on the region’s Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).
Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide (IYC), the Movement for the Survival of the Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND) and a coalition of ex-militants lashed out at him for making such comment on the programme.
Monguno, who reportedly made the statement while addressing State House correspondents last Friday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, had said the alleged wastage was due to corruption and lack of transparency that occurred in the agency over the years.
The NSA also said he had advised President Buhari to end the scheme.
But the groups said Monguno’s the claim was provocative and a threat to the fragile peace in the Niger Delta region.
In a statement yesterday Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, IYC spokesman Ebilade Ekerefe described the NSA’s claim as “unjustifiable”.
He said: “The NSA has no justifiable reason to discredit a programme that has sustained peace and stabilised oil production in the once hostile and volatile Niger Delta region.
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