THE Federal Government says it will henceforth make direct monthly payment of N65,000 stipend to former agitators rather than routing it through their leaders.

Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Col. Dedis Abel (rtd) who dropped the hint yesterday at the launch of the direct payment scheme in Port Harcourt, Rivers State clarified that: “The Amnesty Office took the decision to pay the ex-agitators directly following reports of complicity and short-changing of some of them by the leaders.

“Reports revealed that some of the ex-agitators were paid as low as N20,000 out of the N65,000 which does not conform with the mandate of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

“Henceforth, payment of the monthly stipend would be made directly to each beneficiary with focus to eliminate cases of fraud and short-changing by their leaders.

“Similarly, this exercise will enable us to collect biometrics of beneficiaries and create bank verification numbers (BVNs) to enable government make future payments through their individual bank accounts,’’ he stated.

Abel said the week-long direct payment move was to offset the October, November and December arrears to more than 2,000 former militants, drawn from several ex- camps in the state and neighbouring localities.

The coordinator noted that of the 30,000 beneficiaries under the programme, only 13,000 had received either formal education or vocational training before the coming on stream of the current team.

“However, the number of those trained increased by 5,000 since Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh (rtd) was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari to head the Presidential Amnesty Programme five months ago.

“The 5,000 newly trained beneficiaries were sent to both local and foreign institutions as well as vocational centres to acquire knowledge and skills that would allow them become self-reliant,” he said.