Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa
The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has distanced itself from the claims of one Francis Akpanari, the President of the Ijaw Peoples Association (IPA) in Great Britain and Ireland, that the programme is not living up to its financial obligations to some scholarship students.
PAP in a statement signed by the Special Adviser, Media, to the Interim Administrator, Neotaobase Egbe, said PAP was not owing any of its scholarship students insisting that it was up to date with all payments.
Egbe said it was unfortunate that Akpanari would make a blanket statement without verifying the facts on the ground and appealed to members of the public to ignore him.
He explained that since the emergence of Col. Milland Dixon Dikio, as the Interim Administrator, there had not been any complaints from students and their schools about school fees and in-training allowances.
Egbe said PAP challenged anyone with a contrary opinion to come forward with facts of bonafide amnesty students owed by the amnesty office.
He said: “The PAP unequivocally states that the school fees and in-training allowances of all bonafide beneficiaries of the PAP scholarship scheme are up to March 2022.
“No student on our scholarship scheme is being owed neither is there any institution that is owed. Those with contrary opinions are challenged to provide the names of the students and schools owed.
“The management of the PAP, under the leadership of the Interim Administrator, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd) is focused and committed to its beneficiaries”.