FG to spend N36bn on ex-militants this year

The federal government has allocated the sum of N36 billion as allowances for transformed ex-Niger Delta militants in 2015.

The proposed amount was contained in the N4.3 trillion budget estimate.

Daily Trust checks in the budget document presented to the National Assembly by Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in December 2014 showed that the monies were provided for under the service wide votes.

Of the N36 billion, N35.4 billion will go for the “Reintegration of Transformed Ex-militants,” while over N500 million is to be spent on “Reintegration/Transition safety Allowances” of 3,642 ex-militants of the Niger Delta.

The presidential amnesty programme was established by late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua in 2009 after Niger Delta warlords accepted the prerogative of mercy offered them by the former president and agreed to put down their arms.

The programme, meant to end within two years after the militants were rehabilitated and integrated, has now entered the 6th year since its introduction. From conception, the federal government has spent not less than N500 billion on the amnesty programme.

Daily Trust observed that the N36 billion earmarked for the programme was more than the money the government spent on capital projects in the entire North-east region last year.

President Jonathan’s oil-rich Southsouth region has in the last five years had large share of federal government’s revenue allocation. Daily Trust had reported that the Niger Delta was allocated over N800 billion, representing more than 50 percent of the government’s total capital expenditure of N1.6 trillion in 2014.

This huge allocation was inspite of the 13 percent derivation to the Southsouth, N350 billion annual budget of the Niger Delta Development Commission, monthly federation account allocation and other funding from oil companies and international allocations, our correspondent reports.