Ijeoma Nwogwugwu
The Office of the Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, in response to a THISDAY exclusive report published yesterday on the Amnesty Office’s N48 billion expenditure since its coordinator, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (rtd) assumed office, has refuted the story.
A statement by its media and communications consultant, Mr. Owei Lakemfa, termed the story “malicious”, adding that it was “constructed essentially on a foundation of lies calculated to mislead the public and a campaign of calumny against the person of Gen P.T Boroh and the Presidential Amnesty Programme”.
According to the Amnesty Office, it defended its 2016 budget before the Senate and House Committees on Niger Delta on Tuesday, February 9. “However, the THISDAY report which was published 24 hours later, claimed that the budget defence was to take place yesterday.”
The rejoinder, however, was silent on the fact that the information and figures published by THISDAY were obtained from its 2015 Status Report of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, which it submitted to the Senate Committees on the Niger Delta and Public Procurement, and was scheduled to defend yesterday in the upper chamber.
It added that during its budget defence, the senators noted the fact that the Amnesty Office returned N416,222,850.55 unspent funds in the 2015 budget.
It went further to state that Gen. Boroh did not order ex-militants in universities in the UK, United States of America, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Russia, the Philippines, Belarus and elsewhere abroad, to return to Nigeria.
“There was no such order whatsoever either by Gen. Boroh or the Amnesty Office. Rather, only students on pathway programmes with one-year visas returned home for renewal in line with the UK visa policy,” it said.
The office added that under Gen Boroh, it had paid all the fees and entitlements of students both abroad and in the country and had paid all debts including those owed by the previous administration. “These payments are verifiable from the Central Bank of Nigeria,” the office said in the statement.
It also clarified that all the contracts awarded by the Amnesty Office from September to December 2015 amounted to N12,953,293,844.57 for the vocational training and empowerment (business setup) of amnesty beneficiaries to sustainably reintegrate them into the society.
“However, a total of N17,684,000,000 was paid as monthly stipends and allowances to 30,000 delegates from April to December, 2015 as appropriated by the National Assembly.
“The sum of N10,445,902,060.73 was expended on tuition fees, in-training-allowances, accommodation, book allowances, etc for students offshore and onshore. The balance of N6,307,730,247.61 was for operations, monitoring and evaluation, tickets, international passports and payment of debts from 2013 and 2014.
“Also, all the contracts awarded under the new administration passed through a tenders board thereby complying with due process,” it stated.
It noted that the payment of N510,000,000 as UTME fees for two months was also false, stating that Westerfield College was paid N509,100,000 as total cost for a one-year advanced level programme for direct entry into universities.
This cost covered tuition fees, accommodation, feeding, insurance, study tour, etc, for 150 students, the statement from Lakemfa said.
The Amnesty Office added that from inception, “no beneficiary exited the Amnesty Programme. However, within five months of assumption of office, Gen P.T Boroh introduced the exit strategy and will be exiting 3,232 persons which will save N2,520,960,000 for the federal government”.
“A second batch of 1,040 who are currently being given starter-packs to establish their individual businesses are soon to be exited from the programme which will result in a further N812,760,000 savings for the federal government this year,” the Amnesty Office.
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