Gentlemen of the Fifth Estate of the Realm,
As part of a weekly exercise to enlighten Niger Deltans and Nigerians and then seek a favourable review of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, we will continue to inform about the continued failings of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and the inability of those that manage it to get it right largely as a result of deliberate FRAUD, carefully plotted embezzlement, elaborate concealment of the facts and outright mismanagement.
The truth of the matter is that the Amnesty Programme itself was a laudable programme aimed at engaging those who took up arms against the Nigerian State. The problem however is with the management of the programme.
More than 90% of those who are currently benefiting from the training and educational programmes of the Presidential Amnesty Programme were never ex-militants involved in the agitation in the Niger Delta. Many of them had their names smuggled into the amnesty training document list due to the connivance of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta who also doubles as the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and some of the criminal elements amongst the militant leaders.
So in essence, while non-militants are ferried around the world for various training programs and educational engagements, the real McCoys (the actual ex-militants) have been abandoned in their various communities where many of them now lead gangs that actively engage in the theft of crude oil and related acts of oil facility sabotage.
Fact is, they do not have a choice.
What we seek for is not rocket science. Can the amnesty office today allow any relevant agency or private investigators verify the list of those it has sent to it many aviation training schools whether it be South Africa, Dubai or UAE?
The Amnesty Office bragged about trainees who are currently engaged at the Lufthansa aviation center in Germany. Can the amnesty office state emphatically and provide evidence that those beneficiaries have ever been part of the armed agitation in the Niger Delta? And that for each and every one of these wrongly placed names, there exist one true militant who is currently stealing crude oil from our creeks?
Can the amnesty office provide its data on ex-militants and then compare the accepted list of non-militant elements who truly have a right to enjoy the benefits of the amnesty program?
As a matter of fact, the monthly payments to ex-militants is also another wholly dubious charade that has gulped billions of naira. Very few of those to whom monthly remittances have been made are actual militants and the Amnesty Office led by is well aware of this. For every N2 billion naira mismanaged by the Presidential Amnesty Office, Nigeria looses more than N40 bn worth of crude oil. The facts are there and the sooner the President reviews the Amnesty Programme and rejigs the leadership of the Programme, the better for his government and the better for Nigeria.
We believe that President Jonathan is committed to getting it right in the Niger Delta BUT we also believe that a continued plot to deceive and hoodwink the President is also in play and it was planned, hatched and orchestrated by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Kingsley Kuku. There are evidence to show that Kingsley Kuku has been bragging in several centers about how he cannot be removed because he has been “throwing money and favours at the right place”. Whatever that means. A word is enough for the wise.
Thank you for your support.
Diepreye Jackson Dikibo
Publicity Secretary Ex Militants Leaders Forum