Dikio says clearing N71b debt among PAP’s priority

The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has disclosed that it owes about N71 billion, stressing that clearing the debts is one of the priorities of the Interim Administrator, Col. Milland Dikio (rtd.).

In a statement by his Special Adviser, Media, Nneotaobase Egbe, in Port Harcourt, yesterday, Dikio said he only assumed office in September 2020 and was still in the process of clearing the debts and putting things in their proper place to realise PAP’s mandate.

He denied reports that he was unable to account for N3.7 billion paid to ex-agitators and contractors when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts.

The administrator described the reports as misleading, claiming that the past leadership of PAP between 2015 and 2016 made the payments.

He said since he assumed office, he had been focused on restoring the mandate of the programme to its original intent of transforming the delegates into skilled and employable citizens with the capacity to meaningfully contribute to the development of the Niger Delta while correcting the anomalies he met on the ground.

He said it was not his intention to focus on mistakes of past administrations that truncated the advancement of human capital development of the Niger Delta, rather but to learn from past mistakes, repair broken foundations, build on them and work towards making the Niger Delta the best and most secure place to live and do business in Nigeria.

“When I assumed duties as Interim Administrator of this programme, I was not interested in probing any individual. My main focus is on the mission I was tasked to deliver – which is to ensure that our delegates are successfully and properly re-integrated into society.

“This is why, after reviewing the structure that was used for re-integration, I saw that it does not cater for delegates in any meaningful way. It is for this reason that the new end-to-end empowerment model was introduced. It ensures that delegates are trained, mentored and employed so that there can be a gradual exit from dependence on N65,000 monthly stipends,” he stated.

He appealed for calm among the delegates, assuring them that PAP, as a security programme, would continue to rise to its task.