Amnesty office redeploys staff over ‘leaked documents’

Workers at the Presidential Amnesty Office have raised the alarm over the alleged deployment of indigenes of the Niger Delta from the office.

Some representatives of the indigenes of the Niger Delta in the organisation, while briefing journalists in Abuja over the weekend, said the indigenes in strategic positions were redeployed back to the ministries and replaced.

The affected Amnesty staff were removed with the claim by the administration that the mission was to shut down the programme.

They listed some of those redeployed to include Oloye Kebbi (Peace Building Department), Mr. Okhuba – (Peace Building), Kennedy Febau) Peace Building Unit), Ebiere Ayamah (Vocational Training Unit) Jude Gbaboyor (Data/ICT).

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Others are Highcoast Ombe (Post Training Unit), Samuel Sunday (Post Training Unit), Pere Ikuetemi (Legal Dept), Gabriel Ajama (Data Unit), and Agiri Emmanuel, the Head of Data who was moved to Agabagba in Ondo State.

They alleged that Amnesty Office may have engineered the redeployment of the workers due to the alleged leakage of information on the activities of the leadership of the office.

The sources stated further that while the Niger Delta indigenes were sent back to the ministries and others sent out of Abuja, over 80 persons have been employed in the Amnesty Office recently, most of them from Kogi.

They also stated that the amnesty office allegedly entered into a contract with a Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), to pay monthly charges higher than the salaries of most of the affected workers.

“It was gathered that under the contractual arrangement, the HMO firm would be paid N250,000 per month. The N250,000 per month is made mandatory for all members of staff even when the salaries of most staff is not up to N250,000,” one of the sources alleged.

Shortly before the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the then National Security Adviser, Gen Babagana Monguno, made moves to shut down the programme which was resisted by the leaders and people of the Niger Delta.

When contacted, the spokesman at the Amnesty Office, Freston Akpor, after reading the messages, declined comment.