The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Maj. Gen. Barry Ndiomu (retd.), has said no fewer than 3,000 former Niger Delta agitators are on scholarship in tertiary institutions in the country and abroad.
He added that all their tuitions and allowances for the 2022/2023 sessions had been paid.
The Special Adviser on Media to the PAP Administrator, Freston Akpor, disclosed this in a statement on Monday while dispelling allegations that the scheme had yet to deploy delegates under the scholarship programme.
He said despite inheriting many liabilities, ranging from unpaid scholarship awards, uncompleted vocational training centres, informal education programmes, to a huge financial burden, he had sanitised the scheme.
“Despite episodes of misinformation in the media, we have sanitised the programme. For instance, instead of cancelling the inconclusive scholarship awarded by his predecessor and initiating a fresh one, as most people would have done, General Ndiomu rather sanitised and adopted the process with the payment of all fees for 1,700 PAP students spread across tertiary institutions of learning across the country and an additional 55 delegates going into their first year at various universities in different countries.
“This is in addition to 1,300 students already deployed in various tertiary institutions within Nigeria and overseas in the previous year, bringing the total number of students to 3,000, whose scholarships, covering tuition and In-Training-Allowance, have been paid in full by the administration of General Ndiomu for the 2022/2023 academic session.”
He described as ‘ungodly’ “insinuations that the current dispensation has yet to deploy delegates under the scholarship programme.”
Meanwhile, the amnesty programme said it had introduced a counselling and mentoring schem for ex-agitators aimed at stopping street protests and other forms of unrest.
The PAP Chairman, Strategic Communication Committee, Nature Dumale, said the initiative was introduced by Ndiomu to help ex-agitators deal with stress-related issues that could push them into violent reactions.
Dumale disclosed this during a resilience-building workshop organised by PAP with all members of the strategic committee as well as other ex-agitators in attendance in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
“Every effort is being made by the current PAP Interim Administrator, Maj.-Gen. Barry Ndiomu (retd.), to completely stop all forms of threats to peace in the Niger Delta.
“The Interim Administrator wants to curb anything that could bring renewed violent agitations in the region,” he said.
