FG Assures Payment Of Stipend To Ex-Agitators

The Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta region, Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (rtd), has assured ex-agitators in the region that the December allowance owed them by the Federal Government would soon be cleared.
He spoke, last Wednesday, at Okrika, headquarters of Okrika Local Government Area in Rivers State, when he went in company of the Senior Special Adviser to Abia State Governor on Niger Delta, Mr Kingsley Nna, to verify indigenes of Abia State in the amnesty programme.
Boroh, who is also special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta, said there were 236 indigenes of Abia State registered in the amnesty programme, adding that most of them had been trained in various skills and academic programmes.
He promised that most of those yet to be trained would be given skills in the area of agriculture, adding that beneficiaries of the programme were registered as members of various defunct militant camps in the Niger Delta region.
“Amnesty was granted to the individuals of various militant camps in the region and not states.  But while filling in their forms during the disarmament period, all of them indicated their states of origin. So, these are some of the ex-militants in the programme from Abia State,” he clarified.
Boroh, dismissed insinuations in some quarters that ex-militants from some ethnic groups were more favoured than others, stressing that he had continued to give all beneficiaries of the programme equal opportunities.
While responding, the Special Adviser to the Governor of Abia State on Niger Delta, Kingsley Nna said that he was satisfied that Abia State indigenes were truly in the  programme.
It would be recalled that the Governor of Abia Sate, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, had alleged when the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osibanjo, visited the state during his recent tour that indigenes of the state were not captured in the programme.