Hails amnesty Boss for moving against corruption cabal
The Niger Delta Anti-Corruption Forum has called on the Interim Administrator òf the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Col Milland Dikio, (retd) and the relevant agencies to ensure the prosecution of culprits of contract and scholarship racketeering in the office.
Coordinator of the NDACF, Mr Samuel Joe Samuel, said in a statement on Sunday that the affected officials of the PAP who have perpetrated years of contract and scholarship scam in the should also face prosecution in addition to outright dismissal.
The group commended the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme Col Dikio, for the courage to flush out the corrupt elements who have connived with external elements to steal billions of Naira from the Programme .
The group said, recent reports of the dismissal of some officials of the office who for long have been milking the PAP came as a pointer to Dikio’s integrity and military background.
Samuel whose statement came after a quarterly meeting of the group in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said the dismissed officers are well known to have enriched themselves through phony contracts and scholarship racketeering running into billions of naira.
The NDACF leader said that it was rather reprehensible that between 50 to 60 percent of contracts in the Amnesty Office are handled illegally by members of staff of the PAP through cronies and collaborators.
Samuel lamented that such questionable characters in the Amnesty Office who use fake contractors to plunder the resources of the PAP
have frustrated genuine efforts to meet up with the statutory obligations of the office.
The group lamented that the rot in the Amnesty Office caused by the criminal cabal had been tolerated for too long by previous leaders of the programme due to the external involvement of highly influential beneficiaries from the illegal revenue from fathom contracts and scholarships.
The group said: “We received a cheery news last week that there is an ongoing cleansing of the Presidential Amnesty Office in Abuja and upon investigation we confirmed that it was true. To us as a group, this is long overdue and indeed one of the best things to happen to the region. To say that we are happy about it is an understatement.
“A lot of people are not aware that 50 to 60 percent of the contractors handling various projects are staff of the Amnesty Office. They use people as fronts. It is also on record that most of the contracts they award to themselves does not exist. They just get the money and lavish.
“It is the same thing they do with the PAP Scholarship Programme meant for people from impacted communities. They hijack the scholarships and sell the slots. In some schools there are only about 20 to 25 srudents but the amnesty office pays the fees of as much as 50 to 60 students.
“They have acquired choice properties with their ill gotten funds from the PAP. in Abuja and other cities. It is a fact that these people have several choice properties at the expense of the original beneficiaries of the programme. And a lot of our people don’t know about it.
“When Colonel Milland Dixion Dikio came and said he wanted to reposition the PAP, they declared war on him, frustrated every move he made but the good thing is that the man has lived up expectations and his military background. He has shown capacity to do the right thing.
“We are proud of him and we admire his boldness in the face of the sponsored attacks against him. We encourage him to go after the rest of the people who are also involved in the sharp practices.
“We’re calling on the Interim Administrator of the PAP, to ensure that those culprits and their gang of collaborators are brought to justice. It is not enough to sack them, they should be arrested and prosecuted.
“Everyone who is involved in contract and scholarship scam should have his or her day in court. This will serve as a warning to others, minimize the level of corruption in that office and make the PAP work well”.
While assuring Dikio of their support, they also lauded him for sticking to his broad vision of repositioning the PAP, building the capacity of ex-agitators and general security and development of the region.
The NDAF equally endorsed Dikio’s strategic engagements with critical stakeholders in the region to strengthen the PAP and get them to play their various roles in the Niger Delta Recovery Plan.