712bn Amnesty funds: Mongonu spreading falsehood to instigate crisis, bloodbath in Niger Delta – N/Delta Stakeholders

Concerned stakeholders from the Niger Delta region, have accused the National Security Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd.), of spreading falsehood on how 712billion Presidential Amnesty Programme funds were mismanaged under past three coordinators.

The stakeholders, made up of Elders, Youths and Women of the region, also alleged that the NSA after causing crisis in the north has now turned his face to do same in the Niger Delta region.

They allege that the NSA is bent on instigating crisis and bloodbath in the Niger Delta region.

The angry stakeholders, in a statement issued to Tarakiri Voice, on Wednesday in Yenagoa and signed by Commander Joseph Oyinkuro, accused NSA Monguno of doing everything under the sun to terminate the Amnesty programme in order to cover-up his allege misdeeds and looting of Amnesty funds.

The statement read “The NSA published a false report on 6th September 2021 to instigate the general public against the Amnesty Programme. We kindly ask all well-meaning Nigerians to ask the NSA that if N712billion was stolen by 3 previous Amnesty coordinators as he claimed, and according to his report, the entire federal allocation from the Office of the Accountant General to the Amnesty Programme within the same period is N712billion, then where did these 3 Amnesty coordinators get the funds to pay the 30,000 ex-militants their N65,000.00 monthly stipends for those number of years, and also sent thousands of students abroad for vocational training at some of the best training institutions in the world such as Lufthansa Training, Siemens, Oxford, Cambridge, and others for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees?”

“Despite the weak and wicked attempt by the NSA to instigate crisis amongst ex-militants, the people of the region are aware that the ex-militant leaders have always received bulk payments and in-turn distribute the funds to thousands of members within their various camps to maintain the peace and stability in the region”.

“He has employed all kinds of antics to divide and instigate crisis within the region by releasing documents capable of causing confusion and bloodshed hoping that ex-militants will blame the release of these payment vouchers on the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd.).

He said “The attempt to orchestrate falsehood and blackmail against ex-agitators and people of the region including the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd.) is the hand-work of the NSA in order to terminate the Amnesty Programme”.

They also allege that the NSA deliberately publish false and bogus information to the public on the pay slips to ex-militant leaders to incite ex-militants and the Nigerian public against the people of the Niger Delta region and the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

They said his frauds includes the NSA’s failures and complacency during the 5 days uninterrupted looting of billions of naira worth of properties and equipment at the N60billion facility at the Boro-town Training Complex in Bayelsa state.

The statement called on Nigerians to recall that on 5th September 2020, shortly after the appointment of the  Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd.), the NSA released a false and misleading report claiming that a Presidential Panel which he the NSA oversaw, investigated alleged corruption in the Amnesty Programme and they indicted 3 former Amnesty Coordinators for alleged looting and misappropriation of N712billion allocated to rehabilitate and reintegrate ex-militants.

“The stakeholders again called on the NSA to publicize the names of the sponsors of Boko Haram, the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists and bandits that to this day have continued to maim, kill and displaced tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children without any resistance from the NSA or the Presidency, the whole world is watching”.