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.