ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has stated that they are not in any way being starved of funds and that delay in payment of stipends to the ex-militants was as a result of administrative hitches.
The Media and Communication Consultant, PAP, Mr. Owei Lakemfa, in a statement on Sunday, said that there was no truth in the claims that some students abroad, have had to return to the country due to lack of resources to meet their financial obligations.
Lakemfa said that the students abroad and in the country on the Amnesty Scholarship Programme have received their payments. He however, explained that a few students abroad were yet to be paid because the payments, which have foreign exchange components, have to pass through the new TSA policy at the Central Bank.
Before now, he said, there was a backlog of payments, due to the three-month absence of a signing authority in the Amnesty Office following the change of government and the removal of the former coordinator.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
Upon assumption of office in August, 2015, he noted, the new coordinator of the PAP, Brig-Gen. Paul Boroh (rtd) immediately ensured the clearing of the backlog.
“However, the introduction of the TSA in September, 2015 which affected all MDAs, has understandably led to a slowdown of payments as the CBN perfects the system,” Lakemfa said.
According to him, Boroh, who has personally visited some students under the Amnesty Programme both in the country and abroad, assures affected students that everything possible is being done in concert with the CBN to ensure that they all receive their payments as quickly as possible.
The communication consultant also clarified that students who are returning from the United Kingdom are not doing so due to non-payment of fees or allowances, but because their visas are expiring and are affected by the 28-day window policy of that country.
“It is in the interest of such students to return as the policy provides for a ten-year ban from entering Britain for anyone caught with expired visa,” he said.
“The October, 2015 stipend to those covered under the Amnesty Programme is delayed because the Fourth Quarter Release( (October – December 2015) to the Amnesty Office has not been perfected,” he further clarified.
