400 Duplicate Names Uncovered In Presidential Amnesty’s Payroll
By Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt
The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) discovered 400 duplicated names the amnesty payroll in its first year in office, The Nation learnt on Tuesday.
The discovery led to deeper investigations into the authenticity of over 3,000 accounts receiving the N65,000 monthly stipends.
A source close to PAP’s Interim Administrator Milland Dikio, who disclosed this, explained that a preliminary probe revealed that some of the accounts were fraudulently used to siphon funds meant for genuine ex-agitators.
He said: “Immediately the investigation was ordered, the amnesty office stopped payments of stipends to the accounts.
“Some of the accounts were however cleared and their owners will receive their stipends. But there will be deeper probe to discover the identities of persons receiving monies through identified fake accounts.”
The source added that Dikio was determined to cleanse the system to ensure that PAP’s resources were expended on real and verifiable ex-agitators and not on impostors.
He accused ”some angry contractors” of funding propaganda against the PAP boss because he resisted their pressure to pay for jobs not done.
“Investigations revealed that contractors within the PAP office were not delivering their jobs in accordance with their terms of contracts. These contractors want to be paid for laptops that were not supplied and others who supplied, delivered counterfeit products,” he added.
The source insisted that no amount of propaganda would stop Dikio from carrying out his reforms.
Some ex-agitators described persons behind blackmails against Dikio as impersonators, who were hitherto syphoning the monthly stipends of the original beneficiaries of the programme.
They said the opposers were behind the padding of the amnesty payroll with duplicated names.
One of them, Magada Victor, said that some of the original beneficiaries of PAP were shortchanged in 2009, adding that their stipends were hijacked.
Victor, a prominent member of the formerly dreaded Camp Five, owned by Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tomplo), said: “When we surrendered and disarmed, a list of those who surrendered were compiled and computed into the system.”
At the point where we surrendered, the place was crowded. People jumped in from the fence and used our names to thumbprint.
“When we got to the point of biometrics, they told us we had already registered. People impersonated us and registered with our names. We were surprised and refused to go without being registered.
“I am not the only one, whose stipends have been hijacked. We are many that suffered this fate. We are over 15 or more in my group. Those that have been siphoning our money are currently staging the protest against the Dikio leadership.”
– The Nation
