FG may lose over N1bn in alleged Amnesty fraud

The Federal government is set to lose N1, 053,270,000.00 annually due to deployment of 747 non-beneficiaries of the presidential amnesty programme, an anti-corruption watch group, Critical Coalition Against Corruption (CCAC), has claimed.


The group alleged existence of fraud and irregularities in the deployment of beneficiaries for the 2017/2018 academic session of the Presidential Amnesty programme followings findings it said arose from the various committees set up by the new Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof Quaker Dokubo to look into the current position of all sectors of the Programme.

According to the statement made by the group, it said, “During the most recent deployment of Amnesty Beneficiaries to Nigeria Universities, 1,061 delegates were deployed to 10 Universities and the committee setup to review this, was to amongst other things find out how the 1,061 students were deployed to the various institutions, whether they are beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP), whether their deployment followed due process and any other information that will assist the office.

“Out of a total of 1,061 delegates/students that were deployed to 10 Universities, only 314 delegates/students were found in the database of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.”

It said the committee discovered that some former heads of the programme compiled names of vulnerable youths and sent them to Universities without following due process.

It further alleged that; “The deployment of 747 non-beneficiaries will cost the government not less than N1, 053,270,000.00 annually which was not budgeted for. The table below speaks for this position. It was also discovered that some of the Universities were claimed to be charging way more than what was advertised and submitted to the National University Commission as at the time of the said deployment.

It said “More worrisome is the fact that whiles some folios in the file that have to do with this process was removed, some files were totally missing. There was no record of the deployment in the Office of the Special Adviser on Niger Delta. The list of the said deployment was nowhere in the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta & Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme.

IT also said that “Some of the consideration for deployment of delegates/students to Universities or training facilities in the reintegration component of the Amnesty Programme are: The delegate must be a beneficiary and must be in the database;

There must be a budget for the deployment;

The authorisation must be from the Special Adviser after management has given approval; The letter of Sponsorship/Scholarship award to each delegate/student must be signed by the SAPND and not by proxy,” the statement concluded.