Abuja – The Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, retired Brig.-Gen Paul Boroh, said security was key in solving the challenges of the Niger Delta region.
Boroh said this at a two-day technical workshop on Tuesday in Abuja.
The theme of the exercise was, “Niger Delta: Way forward: From stabilisation to sustainable development in the Niger Delta Region.”
He said the amnesty office was working very closely with stakeholders, including the Ministry of Interior and its agencies, to promote security and boost skills utilisation to close existing development gaps in the area.
“The Presidential Amnesty Programme is anxious to work with all organisations and strategic partners, including international ones to achieve the objectives of the Amnesty Programme.” he stated.
According to the coordinator, the successes achieved in the on-going re-integration phase of the programme included the empowerment of 2,500 ex-agitators and the full employment of 400 others.
He further said that the amnesty office had on Dec. 4, 2015, engaged 78 vendors to empower an additional 1,225 amnesty beneficiaries.
Boroh said the empowerment would lead to the exit of the beneficiaries from the programme which would save the N955.5 million annually in stipend payments.
He said those trained and empowered would create employment opportunities in the Niger Delta region.
The coordinator said that its office recently carried out verification to ascertain the exact number of beneficiaries under its scholarship scheme.
“This is to examine its success and streamline the scheme in line with the reintegration stage of the amnesty programme.”
A total of 3,849 students in 22 countries are to be screened. Among those to be screened are 2,789 students in 28 institutions of higher learning in the country.
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“So far, 293 of the students have graduated.
“There are 1,060 students in 131 schools across 22 countries to be screened. Under the scheme, 202 graduates from foreign schools are to be verified.”
According to him, the scholarship is part of the human capacity building under the programme which has the 30,000 beneficiaries.
The coordinator said the programme negotiated by Nigerian authorities and militants presented a unique window of opportunity to bring peace, stability and economic development to the nine oil producing states on the Niger Delta region.
”The amnesty programme is one of the major reasons for the reduction of criminality, kidnapping, oil bunkering and other vices in the Niger Delta.”
He said that several international partners had indicated interest in the programme and were waiting for plans and programmes of the office to make their developmental inputs (NAN)