There are fresh indications that the Presidential Amnesty Office (PAP), has been unable to account for over N1.9 billion meant for trainees and beneficiaries of it’s Train, Employ and Mentor (TEM) Programme, initiated by a former Interim Administrator, Col Milland Dikio (Rtd).
This came as delegates of the Programme who fear they might not receive the deducted money or get empowered as promised, have appealed to the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) which supervises PAP, to look into the books of PAP and ensure they were not shortchanged.
The amount was alleged to have been deducted from contracts executed under the TEM programme, through the office of the Head of Reintegration of PAP, who renegotiated the contract and removed the ‘Employ and Mentor’ component with the promise that the beneficiaries would be outrightly empowered.
Investigations further revealed that the renegotiation followed the abrupt stop to the training involving 1,200 trainees by General Barry Ndiomu (Rtd.) when he took over leadership of PAP. He was said to have conducted graduation for all the trainees as he was under instruction to bring the programme to an end.
However, the trainees who have been protesting the alleged fraud, have lamented they were yet to be empowered despite the N1.9 billion deduction meant for their empowerment since 2022.
According to some of the delegates who spoke to newsmen but begged not to be mentioned in print for fear of further harassment and molestation, they had been molested with military personnel with military tanks temporarily hired by Ndiomu to stop them at all cost during their protest in Abuja.
The delegates who said they have waited endlessly for their outright empowerment, added that they were worried the N1.9 billion component deducted from the contracts have been diverted by the office.
According to some delegates under Krisdera Agro Allied Farms and Teecentennel Nigeria Limited, one Mr. Wilfred Musa, the Head of Reintegration (HoR), had instructed the contractors to withhold the money since the delegates did not complete the eight months they were initially required to spend, however, the money was said to not have been returned to the government coffers.
The contractors 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.
“After renegotiating with the contractors, deducted a substantial amount from the contract sum, they went to the various training Centres to offer each delegate 750k to completely delist them from the Amnesty Programme,” they said.
The delegates added that they had collectively rejected the said amount but then the Presidential Amnesty Programme office promised to get back to them all to no avail.
Speaking to our Correspondent over the phone on Wednesday, PAP’s Senior Assistant on Media, Mr Freston Akpor, insisted that the allegations were frivolous.
He said: “The allegations are frivolous and part of the ongoing smear campaign in the media against the interim administrator and the Presidential Amnesty Office.”
Responding to questions on the protest by the aggrieved delegates, Mr Akpor noted, “The allegations are frivolous.”
