President Buhari Starts Immediate Direct Payment To Ex-Niger Delta Miliants

Col. Dedis Abel (rtd.), the Chief of Staff to the Office of the Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, has said that the Federal Government had started the direct payment of three months arrears of stipends owed to former Niger Delta militants.

 

While speaking during the launch of the direct payment system in Port Harcourt on thursday, Abel who disclosed this development, pointed out that the current step taken by government became necessary following reports of complicity and shortchanging of the ex-fighters by their leaders.

He also promised that the Federal Government would henceforth be paying the former agitators directly, adding that the era of paying ex-militants their stipends through their leaders was gone.

He said, "The Amnesty Office took the decision to pay the ex-agitators directly following reports of complicity and short-changing of some of them by the leaders.

Reports revealed that some of the ex-agitators were paid as low as N20,000 out of the N65,000 which does not conform with the mandate of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

Henceforth, payment of the monthly stipend would be made directly to each beneficiary with focus to eliminate cases of fraud and shortchanging by their leaders.

Similarly, this exercise will enable us to collect biometrics of beneficiaries and to create Bank Verification Numbers to enable government to make future payments through their individual bank accounts."

 

He added that the ongoing direct payment was aimed at offsetting October, November and December arrears owed over 2,000 ex-militants drawn from Rivers State. He also disclosed that 13,000 ex-agitators out of the total 30,000 amnesty beneficiaries had received formal education or vocational training in the past.

He said, "The 5,000 newly trained beneficiaries were sent to both local and foreign institutions and vocational centres to acquire knowledge and skills that would allow them become self-reliant.

About 12,000 yet to participate in the process will be trained in the coming months. We thank Heritage Bank for its partnership and support of the Amnesty Programme."

 

Source: Tori.ng