The Federal Government on Thursday began the payment of three months arrears owed to about 2,000 Niger Delta ex-agitators in Rivers State.
Retired Colonel Dedis Abel, the Chief of Staff in the Office of the Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, made this known at the launch of the direct payment in Port Harcourt.
Abel said government would henceforth make direct payment of the N65,000 monthly stipend paid to the former agitators rather than making such payment through their leaders and proxies.
He added: “The Amnesty Office took the decision to pay the ex-agitators directly following reports of complicity and shortchanging 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.”
Abel said the week-long direct payment was to offset the October, November and December arrears owed to more than 2,000 former agitators, drawn from several ex-agitators’ camps in the state and environ.
The chief of staff said out of the 30,000 beneficiaries under the Amnesty Programme, only 13,000 had received either formal education or vocational training before the present team came onboard.
He added: “However, the number of those trained increased by 5,000 since retired Brigadier General Paul Boroh was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari to head the Presidential Amnesty Programme five months ago.
“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,” he said.
Abel said the remaining 12,000 ex-agitators yet to participate in the process would be trained in the coming months.
Some beneficiaries who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria expressed delight and commended the PAP for the direct payment and transparency in the process.
The former agitators, numbering in their thousands and chanting songs of praise and victory, expressed optimism that the direct payment would end their being shortchanged by their leaders.