Rot in Presidential Amnesty Programme
angers stakeholders
…Top staffers pocket over N15m per month
Strong allegations of fraud are rocking the Presidential Amnesty Office and the development has left many stakeholders angry.
Sources in critical position in the office have raised the alarm over the alarming plundering of the office under its current leadership.
The stakeholders have called on the anti-graft agencies and indeed the supervisory office, the National Security Adviser to look into how about N5.4b
monthly allocation to the office is being spent.
The sources averred that certain members of staff in the office of the Interim Administrator of the Amnesty Office are being paid huge amounts for
welfare.
The sources said that the Head of Reintegration, Mr. Wilfred Musa, receive N15m per month, the Head of Procurement N15m, while the Head of Administration, Mrs, Balogun gets about
N10m.
It was further gathered that the Heads of Protocol, Audit, and some aides of the boss at the office, receive about N10m as welfare in the agency.
Sources confirmed that the directors in charge of Administration and Audit who were posted from the Office of Head of Service were dropped for retired
civil servants because they raised concerns over the curious financial
deployments in the office.
It was gathered that the current DFA and the Head of Audit are both retired civil
servants who have nothing to worry about over their careers in the civil service.
It was learnt that a new Director of Administration was deployed from the Head of Service but leadership of the Amnesty Office prevented him from
resuming effectively.
All the functions of the Administration department were removed from the former Admin Office and a new department known as Head of Human Resources has been created for the
former Head of Admin, Mrs. Khalinat Balogun, a staff of NTA who is not from the mainstream civil service.
The sources also urged the Federal Government to investigate the cooperative system of the Amnesty
office.
The office, it was gathered, removes N500 million every month for the cooperative system with blurred accounting module.
Workers at the office who have expressed concern over the running of the office have been sent back to the ministries and replaced with newly employed staffers.
Shortly before the end of the Buhari administration, the then National Security
Adviser, Gen Monguno made moves to shut down the programme, but was
resisted by the leaders and people of the Niger Delta.
When Barry Ndiomu was appointed, he said he was at the PAP with a mandate to wind down the programme.
The situation and tension in the region made it impossible for him to abruptly bring the programme to an end.
There are serious concerns that the Amnesty Office has lost its importance under having been relieved of its key roles in the region.
The Interim Administrator has since stopped fresh deployment of students for the scholarship programme
which endeared FG to many people in the region.
The Salient Times numerous efforts to reach the spokesperson, Freston
Akpo on his MTN line proved abortive even as a fresh controversy looms
at the agency over N1.9b deducted from the trainees and beneficiaries of the
scheme.
