The Presidential Amnesty Programme has reiterated commitment to empower beneficiaries.
The Interim Administrator of PAP, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (retd), said in a statement by his media aide, Nneotaobase Egbe.
Dikio said the gesture would reduce the ex-agitators’ dependence on the monthly N65,000 stipend and give them a decent and more sustainable means of livelihood.
“This statement has become necessary due to the recent calls for the payment of non-statutory allowances such as the Transitional Safety Allowance,” he said.
He explained that the TSA was not statutorily provided for and therefore, not captured in the budget provided by the Presidency.
The TSA was a direct payment made by the then Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman, PAP, Kingsley Kuku, who got the approval from the Federal Executive Council to pay ex-agitators who had been disarmed, and on their way out of the disarmament centres.
“This TSA payment was a one-off to all ex-agitators documented in batches in 2010, 2013 and 2014 and was not captured or documented as a recurrent annual payment.
“The interim administrator has frowned at the incessant agitations to resume the TSA payment and is appealing to those agitating for these payments to instead refocus their energy to forming cooperatives for entrepreneurial purposes which he is willing to support,” Dikio added.
PAP was created to stabilise, consolidate and sustain security as well as fast-track development in the Niger Delta region, which included reintegrating the ex-agitators back into society by training and empowering them.
