REVEALED: 3000 ex-Niger Delta agitators on scholarship — Official

The interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Major General Barry Ndiomu (retd.), has said no fewer than 3000 former Niger Delta agitators are on scholarship in tertiary institutions in the country and abroad.

He added that all their tuition and allowances for the 2022/2023 sessions had also 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 several liabilities ranging from unpaid scholarship awards, uncompleted vocational training centers, non-formal education programmes, and a huge financial burden, he had sanitised the scheme.

The statement partly read, “Despite episodes of misinformation in the media, we have sanitized the Programme. For instance, instead of canceling the inconclusive scholarship awarded by his predecessor and initiating a fresh one, as most people would have done, General Ndiomu rather sanitized and adopted the process with the payment of all fees for 1700 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 1300 students already deployed to various tertiary institutions within Nigeria and overseas in the previous year, bringing the total number of students to 3000 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. Insinuations that the current dispensation has yet to deploy delegates under the scholarship programme are ungodly.”

While urging members of the public to ignore the claims of mischief makers, he warned those behind the act to refrain from such.