N712bn amnesty programme funds unaccounted for – NSA

The National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Major General Babagana Monguno, on Friday, said not less than N712 billion spent on the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) could not be accounted for.

Monguno said this at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while speaking with State House reporters after briefing President Muhammadu Buhari on the Amnesty Programme.

• ‘Amnesty programme has not delivered desired benefits after 11 years‘
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He was accompanied by the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, retired Col. Milland Dixon Dokio.

Monguno said the interim coordinator was brought in to stop the corrupt practices in the Amnesty Programme, adding that there is no place on the surface of the earth where programmes meant to be palliatory will continue forever.

He said: “Unfortunately, so many things happened.

“Three years became 11 years and now going to 12.

“This is because of the vicissitudes and vagaries of our society.

“A lot of things happen to catapult the whole programme into other issues that originally were not intended.

“The predatory instincts of certain individuals came into the fore and the programme was turned upside down and as a result of this, like the administrator has just said, there was a lot of corruption, waste, mismanagement within this period, N712 billion was wasted, basically unaccounted for and this is due to so many issues – corruption being at the fore.

“So, basically, the endemic corruption that scuttled this programme and frustrated the people of the Niger Delta is going to be addressed as soon as possible.”

• ‘Programme not sustainable’

Also speaking on Friday, the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme said the scheme had been running for 11 years without the desired benefits delivered to the ex-agitators in the Niger Delta region.

Dokio disclosed that the database of the ex-agitators was rather “dishonestly corrupted and several contracts awarded in total disregard of need and procurement processes.”

As a result of this, he said the programme is currently owing contractors the sum of N71,411,646,210.68.

This development, he added, informed President Buhari’s decision to overhaul the programme aimed at ensuring that the dividends of the amnesty programme reached its original target beneficiaries.