By Saminu Ibrahim
The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, Col. Milland Dixion Dikio (rtd) on Thursday clarified concern of a petitioner at the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.
Responding to a petition by one Egberi Papa (aka Jack-Rch) who alleged that he was left out of the amnesty programme, the interim administrator said he was a man under authority, saying the president is the only person that have the perogative to add people in the amnesty programme.
“After the disarmament we noticed that some states had more people than others, but at that stage it was only the president that could give approval to add people” he said.
He added that his job as the interim administrator of the programme is to render impartial service.
The retired Colonel said he served the country meritoriously for 28 years before he retired voluntarily in 2004.
“When I assumed duty as the interim administrator on September 21, 2020, I have been briefed of the petition by Jack-Rich. I want to affirm that we have 50 members of his camp that are paid regularly. I want to emphasise that not all camps have the same number. There are some camps that have 12. I’m not conversant on how they arrived at those numbers”.
He explained that the consultant to the amnesty programme, Dr. Ferdinand Ikwang who worked with Sarki Muktar, former National Security Adviser said he designed the amnesty programme from the onset and also submitted allocation of ex-militants to states in the Niger Delta.
“Although there are nine states in the Niger Delta, only five came on board, at the initial stage, with Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Imo and Abia states following later”. He said “the president asked that 4,000 slots be allocated to each of these participating states and that was how it was done.
“As it concerns Egberi Papa, because that was what we knew him at that time and it is the name found in the system, Rivers state, where he comes from, has two camp: Iboro camp and DSS headquarters (ad-hoc) camp where the ex-militants dropped their arms.
“The total number of persons at that time who dropped their arms were 2,560 who formed the first batch of the amnesty programme, with 2,000 given to NDDC.
“Slots were allocated on state basis not to individuals, so I was surprised when I got a call from Freedom, not Jack-Rich, that he didn’t have a slot in the amnesty programme.
Meanwhile, chairman of the committee, Senator Ayo Akinyelure urged Dikio to ensure that the petitioner is accommodated by liaising with the presidency.
