The President-Elect, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has been urged not to scrap the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) initiated by the Federal Government to rehabilitate the ex-militants in the Niger Delta when he takes over the rein of government from President Goodluck Jonathan on May 29.
The appeal was made by the President of National Committee of Yoruba Youths (NCYY), Mr. Oladimeji Odeyemi, during a press conference he addressed in Ibadan yesterday in reaction to the statement credited to an Itsekiri chief in Delta State, Chief Ayiri Emami, who reportedly advised Buhari to probe and scrap the PAP.
According to him, “We once again restate our call on the incoming administration to sustain the tempo of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and continue with its funding.”
The group also described the outgoing PAP chairman and special adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, as a man of high repute, unquestionable integrity and worthy of emulation. Kuku and his team, he noted, have turned the amnesty programme into a model to evaluate performance and service delivery.
“Today, with the successful implementation of the amnesty programme, our crude oil production hovers between 2.2million barrels and 2.4million barrels per day. The amnesty programme in just four years has succeeded in training both locally and offshore about 20,000 youths out of the 30,000 beneficiaries enlisted in the scheme, a feat that has produced trained manpower to provide services in the oil and gas, power, maritime, agro-allied and the aviation industries in Nigeria.
“So far, no fewer than 2,000 of these ex-agitators have completed their Bachelor and Masters degrees in various fields. These are human assets that will be ploughed back to render useful services to the nation.
“As of today, almost 2,000 of these beneficiaries are in various institutions abroad, while significant numbers are being schooled in some of our best private universities in the country.
“The PAP as at present has almost 500 Itsekiri youths as beneficiaries of the amnesty programme. Out of this lot, about 100 of them are studying in various institutions abroad courtesy of the programme Ariyi wants the incoming government to scrap. What a conflict of consensus!”
Follow us on Twitter: @NewsFetchers
Like our Facebook page: NewsFetchers
No comments
Post a Comment