Amnesty Programme Gulped N500bn In 12 Years -Report

Despite its failings and widespread inefficiencies, Nigeria’s Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), gulped N500billion from 2009 to 2020, according to a report on the Assessment of the Programme, published, yesterday, by Nextier Security, Peace and Development (SPD).
According to the report, the amnesty project had failed to achieve its purpose for establishment, which is the sustainable human and infrastructural development of the Niger Delta.
It stated that since its inception, the amnesty programme had been marred by corruption, lack of transparency and elite capture, and had continued to enrich a few individuals with the Niger Delta region and the country.
The report noted that, “It is estimated that the programme has gulped more than N500billion, from 2009 till date. From its inception to 2014, N234billion was estimated to have been expended on the programme. With a boost to its yearly budget from N20billion to N65billion in 2017, its yearly budget increased by N30billion.
“While the programme gifted the monthly stipends to lower cadre ex-militants, it provided multi-dollar pipeline security surveillance contracts to ex-militant generals and other forms of contracts to other elite members of the society. The programme has continued to enrich a selected few within the region and in the country while the majority of people from local oil communities are marginalized or excluded.”