Large Scale Fraud Uncovered In Presidential Amnesty Programme

A large-scale fraud has been uncovered in the  Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), involving some institutions of higher learning in the country.

The fraud was discovered following an in-house committee headed by the Head of Reintegration, Amnesty Office, Chief Aroloyeteim Brown, who verified beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme in local universities in the country.

The verification shows that the educational part of the programme was fraught with irregularities in previous deployment of delegates for educational programmes in some universities in the country.

Report says an alarming figure of students enrolled in universities under the PAP were not captured in the data base at the Amnesty Office.

Confirming this in a circulated statement on Tuesday, the amnesty office said the discovery followed a verification exercise ordered by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, on assumption of office.

The statement which was issued by Murphy Ganagana, Special Assistant (Media) to Dokubo, said a committee set up to ascertain the number of beneficiaries of the Amnesty programme hitherto deployed to universities onshore for various educational programmes, discovered that an alarming figure of students enrolled in universities under the PAP were not captured in the data base at the Amnesty Office.

“Against the backdrop of huge tuition fees forwarded to the Amnesty Office for payment tby  some universities in the country for supposed beneficiaries deployed to the institutions for study, Dokubo constituted a committee headed by the Head of Reintegration, Amnesty Office, Chief Aroloyeteim Brown, to verify beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme in local universities.

“The committee was among others, mandated to ascertain admission process of the students into the various institutions; determine whether the students are beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme, and, if not, who was responsible for their admission or deployment.

‘It is also probing the disparity in tuition fees for students deployed by the Amnesty Office and others undergoing same programmes at the institutions, and to ascertain if there had been insider collaboration to pad fees of our delegates for pecuniary interests.

“The committee which is rounding off its assignment, has however, uncovered large scale fraud in previous deployment of delegates not captured in the data base of beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme to various universities within the country.

“Checks indicated that while a new university (identity withheld) recently forwarded a list of 62 pre-degree students to the Amnesty Office for payment of tuitions fees, the committee discovered that only 14 of them were captured in the data base of beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme,” the statement said.

According to Amnesty Office, only 34 out of 201 first year students at another new university in the South-eastern part of the country were also cleared as beneficiaries in the Amnesty database.

“In the same vein, the names of 200 first year students out of a total of 290 sent to the Amnesty Office for payment of tuition fees by three universities in the South-south (names withheld) could not be verified on the data base of beneficiaries.

“The names of only 90 students from the three institutions were verified.
“However, Dokubo is deeply concerned over this worrisome development, especially the plight of the affected students and he is exploring measures to address the situation after meeting the management of the affected institutions,” the statement concluded.

Story by Julius Eras-Olabowu