Stakeholders Seek Probe Of 1,714 Amnesty ‘Scholarship Racketeering’

Stakeholders have called on the Interim administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Maj. Gen. Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd) to set up a probe panel to investigate the 1,714 local and foreign scholarship slots awarded by the immediate past administration.

Speaking with newsmen in Yenagoa on Monday, former vice chairman of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Ogobiri Mein Clan, Snr. Comr. Ebi

Olomu, described the alleged scholarship fraud as a sad commentary.

According to him, whereas the real ex-agitators are excluded from benefitting from the educational programme of PAP, nonNiger Deltans and cronies of some dubious official are the ones benefitting from the struggle.

He said "We want to thank the new amnesty boss, Maj. Gen. Ndiomu (Rtd), for his achievements within his short period in office. We want him to know that the entire Ijaw Nation is with him on this issue and that he should go ahead with whatever way he wants to go about cleansing the system.

"It is no longer news that the immediate past administration of the Presidential Amnesty Programme is involved in an alleged local and foreign scholarship fraud, numbering 1,714 beneficiaries which excluded the real ex-agitators.

This discovery is coming following the emergence of the new interim Administrator, Maj. Gen. Ndiomu," the youth leader said.

On his part, an Ijaw traditional cleric, Apostle Bodmas Kemepadei, noted that the latest discovery of these local and foreign scholarships awarded to persons whose identities are yet to be confirmed as to whether they are real exagitators or not was an exercise hurriedly put together the past administration before their exit.