The Special Adviser to the President on Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, yesterday pleaded with the House of Representatives to approve N63.3 billion for the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the 2015 budgetary allocation. This is just as he informed that external training has been scrapped by the agency for ex-militants.

Kuku told the House Committee on Niger Delta that his office had communicated appropriately with relevant agencies in charge of budgetary releases with regards to the security implication of defaulting in the payment of allowances to ex-agitators.

“We have communicated properly with the Budget Office and the Finance Ministry. We have also emphasised the security importance of this component of rehabilitation and integration after disarmament.

“Some of these people have called to abuse me. Some even threatened to kidnap me and my family just because of the delay we experienced in the release of funds to pay their stipends and allowances. We have communicated this to the ministry and also explained to the ex-agitators,” he explained.

Specifically, N63.3 billion is allocated for the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the 2015 Budget, budgetary allocation, from which N34,530,100,824.12 is going into reintegration component of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

According to Kuku, N23,573,812,500 is the cost of sustaining the Federal Government’s commitment of N65,000 monthly stipends to 29,935 ex-agitators enrolled in the programme in 2015, with N5,177,180,461.88 being cost of operations in the 2015 fiscal year in the Presidential Amnesty Office domiciled in the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and its outpost.

In particular, the House decried the slow pace of budgetary releases for the implementation of the Presidential Amnesty Programme in the 2014 appropriation, despite its security and social importance to the country and the Niger Delta region.

Chairman of the committee, Hon. Warman Ogoriba (PDP, Bayelsa), however, assured the office of support in facilitating prompt release of allocated funds, while questioning the office over failure to fulfil all outstanding obligations to aggrieved agitators who left in the scheme.

He stressed that the committee will do its best to facilitate the release of all outstanding funds for the purpose of ensuring that the programme achieves its set objectives.

“We, as a committee, share your pains and understand your plight and we will do our best to assist your office in solving this problem. It is not about you as an individual, but about the programme and the success of it.

“I have been to some of the schools where you train these ex-agitators and I know what it takes for you to run such programmes. However, for the avoidance of doubt, we will need you to furnish the committee with a comprehensive list of those still in the programme, the institutions they are and what they are being owed as outstanding payments with regard to training,” he said.