Niger Delta Presidential Amnesty Programme to be replaced

The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Col. Milland Dikio (retd.), has said the scheme would be changed from ‘Amnesty’ to the Niger Delta Stabilisation Programme as part of the strategies to rebrand the PAP and move the region forward.

Dikio explained that the current nomenclature of the programme creates barriers and limits opportunities as far as it continued to maintain the name ‘Amnesty’, especially outside Nigeria.

According to him, the name ‘Amnesty’ suggests a situation in which there are things that cannot be done as well as countries that cannot be entered.
Speaking during an interactive session with leaders of the second phase of PAP in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Dikio stated that the programme would therefore be upgraded to NDSP.

Dikio, who urged the ex-agitators to look beyond the N65,000 monthly stipend, said, “We must establish the Niger Delta Stabilisation Programme; we must change that name (amnesty), terminate the DDR and open another thing.

“I have operated DDR in Cameroon and Angola. As far as this name ‘amnesty’ remains, there are things that we can’t do and there are countries we can’t enter. We can’t make progress sitting in one place. My job is to make you think beyond the N65,000 mentality.”