November 25, (THEWILL) – The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Major General Barry Tariye Ndiomu, has proffered reasons why the organisation decided to delist some ex-agitators from its database.
According to the Interim Administrator, “the PAP as an organisation cannot be seen to condone fraudulent practices perpetrated by some ex-agitators and their collaborators in the agency”.
In a press statement signed by Thomas Peretu, SA Media to the PAP Interim Administrator, he revealed that there were duplications of names in the database, as some individuals have over the years, changed their names multiple times with multiple or single BVNs in order to defraud the programme.
He noted that “there are situations whereby an individual was collecting the stipends meant for 10 to 33 persons every month”
Ndiomu said the situation is so bad that it has become increasingly difficult for PAP to meet its obligations and commitments to its genuine contractors and students on scholarship.
Similarly, he noted that the forensic audit he initiated has also discovered that some delegates under training have been collecting both training allowances and monthly stipends. While some beneficiaries, who have undergone training and empowerment are still on the database receiving stipends instead of exiting the programme.
Ndiomu also stated that some delegates on the bulk payment scheme are equally collecting the monthly stipends, besides other entrenched forms of fraud in the system.
He said, “no Administrator worth his calling will tolerate such mammoth malfeasance under his watch.”
The Interim Administrator reiterated the fact that the ongoing audit is not intended to witch-hunt any individual or group of persons, but was instituted to sanitize the system in the overall interest of the ex-agitators, who have been short-changed by their counterparts.
Ndiomu, therefore, appealed to the ex-agitators and other interest groups in the region, to buy into his structured plan to redefine the programme and to ensure sanity and accountability in the amnesty Programme.
