Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa
The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) on Saturday said the Senate inquiries into some transactions that occurred in the amnesty office predates the appointment of Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd), as Interim Administrator of the scheme.
PAP noted that media reports suggesting that the transactions were done within Dikio’s tenure were false and misleading seeking to discredit the interim administrator.
The Special Adviser to Dikio on Media, Mr Neotabase Egbe, said in a statement that the incident occurred in 2017, and the circular for the query succinctly captured the date and other details.
According to the statement, it was inconceivable for the reports to give the impression that the Senate summoned Dikio for allegedly paying N187 million for the supply of stationery and consultancy fee for end year meeting and vocational training.
He said that basic investigation to fulfil the time tested and age-long journalistic ethics of factual reporting would have revealed the facts if the reports were not aimed at mischief.
Egbe explained that the notice of the query which had the 2017 payment voucher would have ordinarily made them avoid the gross misrepresentation of the issue.
He said the amnesty office at no time received a series of invitations from the senate as claimed by the reports.
According to him, Dikio has high regard for institutions of government saddled with the responsibility of carrying out its statutory function.
“The report widely circulated in some national dailies does not represent the true situation of things. The said incident for the supply of stationery and consultancy services for the end of the year happened way back in 2017.
“It was therefore surprising that for obvious monetary gains, mischief and deliberate action to discredit the Interim Administrator, the authors of the story couldn’t verify from the office.
“Even the nomenclature of the office from the circular shows that the occupant of the office was still referred to as Special Adviser, whereas since the coming of Dikio, it has been rightly changed as Administrator”, he said.
Egbe called on journalists to always cross-check with the amnesty office to avoid such embarrassing reports, maintaining that Dikio’s mantra of probity and accountability remained unchanged.