News
PAP Probes 3,000 Accounts, Stops 400 Fake Contractors’ Payment
The Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Col. Milland Dixion Dikio (rtd), discovered in his first year in office that the amnesty payroll was padded with 400 duplicated names, it was learnt, yesterday.
In a statement by the Special Adviser on Media to Dikio, Neotaobase Egbe, the discovery was said to have led to deeper investigations into the authenticity of over 3,000 accounts receiving the N65,000 monthly stipends.
He said a preliminary probe revealed that some of the accounts were fake and fraudulently used to siphon funds meant for original ex-agitators.
“Immediately the investigation was ordered, the amnesty office stopped the stipends of the accounts undergoing probe. It is the right to do.
“I can tell you that some of the accounts had been cleared and their owners will receive their stipends. But there will be deeper probe to discover the identities of persons receiving monies through identified fake accounts,” he said.
He said Dikio was determined to cleanse the system to ensure that amnesty’s resources were expended on real and verifiable ex-agitators and not on impostors.
The statement said some angry contractors were funding propaganda against Dikio because the amnesty boss resisted pressure they mounted on him to pay them for jobs not done.
“Investigations revealed that contractors within PAP office were not delivering their jobs in accordance with their terms of contracts.
“These contractors want to be paid for laptops that were not supplied and others who supplied, delivered counterfeit products,” he said.
The statement insisted that Dikio was determined to cleanse the system and no amount of propaganda would stop him from carrying out his reforms.
Some ex-agitators also corroborated the development, describing persons behind blackmails against Dikio as disgruntled impersonators, who were hitherto syphoning the monthly stipends of the original beneficiaries of the programme.
They said those opposed were behind the padding of the amnesty payroll with duplicated names recently discovered in a probe ordered by Dikio to sanitise the system.
One of the ex-agitators, Magada Victor, a prominent member of the formerly dreaded Camp Five owned by Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, gave an insight into the identities of persons waging war against Dikio.
Victor said the names of some the original beneficiaries of PAP were short-changed in 2009, and stipends had since been hijacked to the accounts of non-beneficiaries of the programme.
He recalled that Dikio promised to investigate the allegations of fraud in PAP when he interacted with ex-agitators during his visits to the region.
Victor said, “Everybody in the Niger Delta is talking about the good work of this current administration, they are doing the right thing and I truly hope that this administration will last.
“Presidential amnesty under the leadership of Dikio is one of the best so far and we are ready to defend this administration. If Dikio continues this good work, there will be no further protests in the region.”
He said, “Tompolo was the last person to surrender to the amnesty programme in 2009. When we surrendered and disarmed, a list of those who surrendered were compiled and computed into the system. At the point where we surrendered, the place was crowded. People jumped in from the fence and used our names to thumbprint.
“We the original beneficiaries when we got to the point of biometrics, they told us we had already registered. People impersonated us and registered with our names. We were surprised and refused to go without being registered.
“The navy was beating us in the course of trying to control the crowd. These people that were not even involved in the struggle came and hijacked our names. Since then, they have been on the run because we have been trying to trace them.
“I am not the only one, whose stipends have been hijacked. We are many that have suffered this same fate. There are over 15 people or more in my group. Those that have been syphoning the money of our people are currently staging the protest against Dikio’s administration.
“We will continue to fight for this administration because it is doing good work. These enemies of PAP have become desperate and are now spreading falsehood against the programme”.
By: Amadi Akujobi
The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.
This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.
The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.
The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.
From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.
From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.
Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.
From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.
The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.
The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.
The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.
Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.
He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.
This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.
Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.
He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.
The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.
Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.
Chinedu Wosu
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