Batch of Niger Delta militants released amid plans to end amnesty programme by 2018

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has set a target deadline of 2018 for end of the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme as part of a comprehensive programme to round up the scheme under with former militants are paid to lay down their arms and get trained.

 

In 2009, former president Umaru Yar'Adua introduced the Presidential Amnesty Office as part of a programme to end the Niger Delta militancy. His programme involved paying militants monthly stipends under an amnesty scheme that would involve them laying down their arms and going on training courses.

 

Upon assuming power in May last year, President Buhari pledged to keep the programme in place and appointed retired Brigadier Paul Boroh as his special adviser on the Niger Delta and Presidential Amnesty Programme. Yesterday, Brigadier Boroh revealed that 3,232 beneficiaries of the amnesty programme will be taken off it by the end of this month as part of a winding down process.

 

He noted that the federal government is set to end amnesty programme once and for all in 2018. According to Brigadier Boroh the first of such of those being released involves beneficiaries who have been trained as entrepreneurs and have received their business and set-up starter packs and 400 others who the office had helped to secure employment in different organisations.

 

Brigadier Boroh added that the exit if the beneficiaries will save the government over N2.5bn (£8.5m) in stipend payments, pointing out that a second batch of 1,042 are currently being given starter packs to establish their individual businesses and will soon exit from the programme, resulting in further savings of N812.7m. He said that depending on the budgetary allocation, the office of the Presidential Amnesty Programme plans to release an additional 2,958 beneficiaries this year resulting in further savings of over N2.3bn.

 

According to Brigadier Boroh, so far, the programme has trained 17,322 people but because it is expensive it cannot go on forever. He also added that the amnesty office has embarked on the domestication of its programmes with only five of the 49 training institutions still outside Nigeria while it also has students in 131 tertiary abroad.

 

Brigadier Boroh also said that with effect from the 2015/16 session, 95% of students beneficiaries of the programme will be deployed to local institutions. Furthermore, Brigadier Boroh noted that over the past five years, the programme has secured admission to and given scholarships to 5,234 beneficiaries in tertiary institutions.

 

He added that of this number, 3,082 gained admission in the country and 2,150 were admitted abroad, while 272 have graduated. It is not yet clear if the militants are in support of the government's plan to wind up the programme.