The federal government has offered employment to 350 ex-agitators from the Niger Delta region, who graduated from various tertiary institutions across the world. Paul Boroh, coordinator, presidential amnesty programme, PAP, made this known when he met newsmen in Abuja on Friday.
Boroh, who doubles as the special adviser to the president on Niger Delta, said the affected ex-agitators had already been posted to various federal ministries awaiting approval of the 2018 appropriation bill by the National Assembly.
“The federal government ensured that about 350 of them have been employed in the various ministries in the country. We are only waiting for appropriation so that once they report to their various ministries they will start earning their salaries,’’ He disclosed that the 350 graduates were among the about 30,000 ex-agitators sponsored for various studies abroad by the amnesty office.
The presidential aide, however, described as untrue and false that some of the ex-agitators studying abroad had been abandoned following the failure of the amnesty office to pay their school fees and allowances.
“I will never allow any of my children schooling outside this country under government (sponsorship) to suffer. So as we speak 96 per cent of those on off-shore scholarship have graduated and returned home. I have only a few, in fact not more than 100 of them left in the entire globe where they have been schooling in the US, UK, Asian countries and South Africa – they have graduated and have come home. The ones that refused to graduate and are trying to make life unbearable for themselves is their own cup of duty. The federal government is not responsible for them anymore,’’ he said.
Boroh, who announced that no date has been fixed for the collapse of the amnesty programme, said his office was in the process of achieving sustainable reintegration of the ex-agitators in the programme. According to him, his task is to continue to ensure peace and stability in the Niger Delta region.