By John Alechenu, Abuja



The Presidential Amnesty Office is being rocked by a raging controversy over N1.9 billion allegedly deducted from trainees of the amnesty programme.


It was learnt that the fresh controversy was triggered by complaints over deductions made from contracts executed under the erstwhile Train, Employ and Mentor (TIEM) Programme initiated by the administration of immediate past Interim Administration of PAP, Col.Milland Dikio (rtd.)


Under the TIEM, the beneficiaries of the programme were to be trained, employed and mentored to prevent them from straying after the programme.


It was gathered that when General Barry Ndiomu (rtd.) took over, there were 1,200 delegates in training which he stopped. He was said to have conducted graduation for all of them as he was under instruction to bring the program to an end.


The contracts were subsequently renegotiated and the Reintegration Department removed the ‘Employ and Mentor’ component with the promise that the beneficiaries would be outrightly empowered.


It was gathered that the Integration Office deducted funds from the contracts and kept N1.9 billion meant to empower the delegates.


After waiting endlessly for outright empowerment, the beneficiaries and office staff are raising an alarm that the N1.9 billion component deducted from the contracts has been diverted by the office.


A source who pleaded anonymity for fear of retribution explained that “the following contractors were contracted to provide this service to beneficiaries include: Bradama International Skill Works Limited (400 delegates), Sunup Logistics Limited (200) delegates, Krisdera Agro Allied FArms, (200 delegates), Teecentenel Nigeria Limited (110), Betrieb Limited (50,) and Vika Farms Limited.


Some delegates under Krisdera Agro Allied Farms and Teecentennel Nigeria Limited who equally spoke off the record out of concern for their personal safety accused
PAP’s Head of Reintegration, of making the suspicious deductions.


It was further learnt that after renegotiating with the contractors, the funds in question were deducted from the initial contract sum thus substantially reducing what beneficiaries were entitled to.


Officials from the PAP then went to the various training Centres to offer each delegate 750k to completely delist them from the Amnesty Programme entirely.


The delegates/ beneficiaries collectively rejected the offer. The office promised to get back to them all but have failed to do so ever since.


They claim the officer in charge of the Reintegration Office was responsible for the mastery around delay or disappearance of their Two Months In-Training Allowance which had earlier been paid by the Office to the contractor for onward disbursement to the beneficiaries.


It was learnt that the head of
Reintegration instructed contractors to withhold the money since the delegates did not complete the eight months they were initially required to spend.


That money is yet to be returned to government coffers.


An internal probe of information leak begins

The staff of the Amnesty Office are being investigated over leaks of official secrets it was also gathered.


Towards this end, the security unit of the amnesty office has initiated a search of the mobile telephones of staff suspected to be behind the leaks.


Penultimate week, staff of the office were mandated to tender their mobile telephones for scrutiny by the Head of the office.


Some of those who resisted this move and threatened to institute legal action against the office were redeployed.


A meeting between the aggrieved beneficiaries and the office was last held in December 2022,


Some of the delegates who came to protest in Abuja were allegedly molested by military personnel on the orders of the Head of the office.


The concerned delegates who fear they might not receive the money have appealed to the office of the NSA which supervises the PAP to look into the books of the agencies.


A spokesperson for PAP, Freston Akpor had dismissed allegations of financial impropriety against the office as part of a baseless smear campaign







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